Hemophilia
Biology Genetic Research Project
Why is hemophilia my choice?
I chose hemophilia because I, personally, know someone who has hemophilia and they are careful with everything they do. In order to know more about this I chose hemophilia.
Hemophilia Presentation
Information on Hemophilia
Hemophilia is a disease that the blood does not clot normally. One will bleed longer than a normal person would. If you get hurt within a joint but you do not bleed externally then blood will flow into the joint and continuously bleed into the joint causing it to be painful. With hemophilia it can occur anywhere in the body and in any joint that you hit. There are three different classifications of hemophilia: mild, moderate, and severe.
How common and who are likely to get it?
In families who have hemophilia the boys are likely to get hemophilia than the girls because the girls have another X to cancel out that disease on that one X but the boys does not so they have a 50/50 of getting hemophilia. Hemophilia is a rare disease so 1 in 4,000 males are likely to get it.
Inheritance
Hemophilia is a sex-linked disease. It is carried on a mother's X chromosome. Fathers who has hemophilia can not give it to the sons because he only gives off a Y chromosome so if a father has hemophilia then the daughters will be carriers for hemophilia and has a 50/50 of giving it off to her sons. Hemophilia is a recessive trait.
How hemophilia works
Family Tree
This shows how hemophilia is passed down from generation to generation. The father has it in this picture so it means that the son has a 50/50 of getting and the daughters has a 50/50 of being a carrier. In this picture the sons do not have hemophilia but the daughters are carriers meaning if they have a son then they will have a 50/50 chance of getting hemophilia.
Punnet Square
This punnet square shows how the genes are passed down. Hemophilia is passed down by the X chromosome. In this punnet square the father has hemophilia so it will be passed down. In this case the daughter (XX) are carriers of hemophilia and the sons do not have hemophilia.
Generation After Generation
In this picture you see a family tree of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's family generation after generation.
Cause of Disorder
What happens inside the body if someone has hemophilia is that the blood will not be able to go clot where someone bled because of the missing factor within that blood. This disease is a genetic mutation within the X chromosome.
Symptoms
Obviously bleeding for a long period of time would be a major symptom, but other than that there are some other symptoms such as:
- Swelling in a joint
- Headaches that are painful and prolonged
- Vomiting over and over
- Extreme fatigue
- Pain in the neck
- Double vision
Treatments & Diagnosed
The treatment for hemophilia is to get shots to make up for the missing clotting factor whether it is going to the hospital to get the shot or giving themselves a shot.
If a doctor suspects that a child may have hemophilia then the child will do a screening test and a clotting factor test called factor assays which test to see how severe it it.
Something I learned
While researching hemophilia I learned lots of things. I had simply thought hemophilia meant that you bleed for a longer time if you get hurt externally but it can happen within joints as well. Girls can never get the disease but they can be carriers for it and only boys can get the disease.
Hemophilia and Kids
Resources
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemophilia/basics/symptoms/con-20029824
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemophilia/basics/definition/con-20029824
- http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemophilia/basics/causes/con-20029824
- http://www.hog.org/bleeding/page/what-is-hemophilia
- http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/hemophilia
- http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hemophilia/diagnosis.html
- Pictures: Google
- Videos: Youtube