Hemophilia March 11, 2016 By: Nam-Y7

History Hemophilia was first recognized by the Jews, but not officially named even in the ancient times. In the 2nd century AD, the Talmud, a Jewish collection of Rabbinical writings said that the boys did not have to be circumcised if two brothers died of the disease. In 1800s, it became known as the Royal Disease because many people of royal families died or got the disease. Queen Victoria got Hemophilia but she survived. Alexei, the heir apparent to the Russian royal family, suffered from Hemophilia. In 1950s, the first treatment to hemophilia appeared. It was in a type called “fresh frozen plasma”. Nowadays, we are marching towards a cure but there are two treatments. One is called “gene therapy” and the other is called “Recombinant therapy”. A treatment for hemophilia is replacing old blood clots with new ones.

Part of body it affects Hemophilia does not really affect a part of the body since it only affects blood. When you get attacked anywhere even lightly like a poke, you will lose blood and get bruisers inside. When you are bleeding, the blood clots won’t function and you will keep bleeding. There are 3 types of hemophilia. The most common type is Hemophilia A. It is caused by insufficient clotting of Factor VIII. Hemophilia B is the second-most common type. It is caused by insufficient clotting of Factor IX. Hemophilia C is when the disease gets really mild and heavy. Hemophilia usually affects males and rarely affects females. Clotting is referred to blood clotting which means blood form walls to stop bleeding. 4 out of 5 people who have hemophilia have Hemophilia A.

How does it affect the body The disease is usually inherited from your parents. People who are born with hemophilia have an extremely low clotting factor. When the blood clots are broken, it is very easy for the body to bleed. Hemophilia can also be acquired but very rarely. This can happen if your body forms proteins that attack the blood clots but this happens so low that the percentage is not even in 1 out of 10000.

People it affects As I said before, hemophilia usually affects males. Out of 1 in 5000 males are born with the disease. Females can also be born with this disease but this is extremely rare. Hemophilia also cannot be prevented.

Certain age group Most people who have hemophilia had it since they were very young cause it is a genetic disease. Since there is no cure at the moment for this disease, it can last until you die.

Mortality rate The mortality rate of hemophilia is 4%. This means that 1 out 25 people with hemophilia die from it. Hemophilia is also very rare. An estimated 1 out of 15950 people in the US have the disease.

Random facts In the 1980’s, 90% of Americans who had hemophilia then became infected with AIDS due to improper scanning of blood and plasma donations. Hemophilia A and B affect males, Hemophilia C affects males and females equally. Hemophilia A is 4x more common that Hemophilia B. The von Willebrand disease is a form of Hemophilia. Only 1 in 100 MILLION females have Hemophilia. (as of 1973)

symptoms There are 7 symptoms of hemophilia. They are sudden pain in body parts, bleeding heavily from an injury, painful and prolonged headache, repeated vomiting, extreme fatigue, neck pain, and double vision. If you have any of those, you might be showing signs of hemophilia.

countries At this moment, the US and Canada seems to have the most number of cases with hemophilia. In the US, about 20000 people have it (1 out of 15950). In Canada, 3000 people have either the A or B type of the disease. Von Willebrand disease affect an average of 32.5 thousand Canadians.

Treatments Since there is no cure, there are a variety of treatment options for hemophilia. The best way to treat it is to replace broken blood clots with new ones or called the “replacement therapy”. Another type of treatment is using a drug called “Desmopressin” or DDAVP but it should only be used if you have mild cases of hemophilia. However, DDAVP cannot be used to treat Hemophilia B or severe Hemophilia A. Another one is “gene therapy”. It is not yet used but research is trying to fix genes with hemophilia using this method. However, that could be really dangerous since it was never tested. The last type of treatment is using “Antifibrinolytic medicines” but it is often combined with replacement therapy. They are stored in a pill and help blood clots from breaking down. Hemophilia should be treated since it is very dangerous for life. In 10 years, we are sure all the treatments and cures will work and stop hemophilia.

sources http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/hemophilia/treatment http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases- conditions/hemophilia/basics/definition/con-20029824 http://www.hemophilia.ca/en/bleeding-disorders/hemophilia-a-and-b/ http://www.hemophilia.ca/en/bleeding-disorders/hemophilia-a-and-b/what- is-hemophilia/ http://www.hemophilia.ca/en/bleeding-disorders/hemophilia-a-and-b/the- history-of-hemophilia/ http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/96/2/437 https://www.zoomrx.com/infographics/Hemophilia/Hemophilia_Print_Smal l.png http://sciencecases.lib.buffalo.edu/cs/files/hemo.pdf

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