Doctors talk on treating patients with haemophilia

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 28

World Haemophilia Day is observed across the globe on April 17 every year and the month is dedicated for haemophilia awareness. Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, along with patients, observed this day today.

More than 200 patients and their relatives attended the function. Director Dr William Bhatti encouraged the patients.

Faculty members Dr Narinder Singh from GMC, Amritsar, and Dr Gursharan Singh from GMC, Patiala, shared their experience in treating patients with haemophilia at their centres.

Dr Chepsy Philip from CMC elaborated on the World Haemophilia Federation theme for 2019, which is ‘outreach and identification’.

Dr M Joseph John from CMC talked about the project of identifying the patients with inhibitors through which free inhibitor screening can be performed. Patients also shared their experience.

Haemophilia in India is a grossly under diagnosed disorder, mainly due to lack of awareness and diagnostic facilities in the country.

PWH faces long-term joint deformities and early death. Persons with haemophilia (PWH), if diagnosed and managed in time, can get a normal life, contributing to society like a normal person.

The best treatment available is anti-haemophilic factor (AHF). With the free factor supply through the Punjab Health and Family Welfare and National Health Mission, many patients in the state are benefitted with improved quality of life.

Dr Y Uday from Research and Referral Hospital, Delhi, explained about the use of real time data entry by patients through a mobile app.

The disease

• Haemophilia is a condition in which a specific factor 8 or 9 is missing, which helps the blood to clot following an injury. It is estimated that 1 in every 5,000 males are affected by the disease.
• According to the Haemophilia Federation of India (HFI) data, there are 18,000 haemophilia patients registered in the 85 Haemophilia chapters across the country.