Hemophilia patients facing problems during lock-down

Hemophilia is a rare genetic disorder that affects the blood’s ability to clot. There are around 800 registered hemophilia patients in Lucknow and 3000 across Uttar Pradesh. The patients were restricted even from accessing healthcare facilities under the lock-down.

Hemophilia patients in Uttar Pradesh are facing acute problems during the lock-down, due to non-availability of factors, a protein in the blood that controls bleeding.

Hemophilia is a rare genetic disorder that affects the blood’s ability to clot. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Hemophilia is a rare genetic disorder that affects the blood’s ability to clot. There are around 800 registered hemophilia patients in Lucknow and 3000 across Uttar Pradesh. The patients were restricted even from accessing healthcare facilities under the lock-down, said Vinay Manchanda, secretary, Hemophilia Society, Lucknow.

He said there were 26 hemophilia treatment centres in Uttar Pradesh and most of them did not have anti-hemophilia factors for the past two months. Hemophilia patients have low immunity which makes them vulnerable to contracting Sars-Cov-2.

Gopal Agrawal, Patient Advocacy, and Patient Services, Takeda India that works in the field of hemophelia treatment said it was an inherited single gene disorder. About one in every 5,000 males was born with the disorder. There are approximately 21,000 registered hemophilia patients in India. This rare disease mostly impacts pediatric males.

“The restricted movement is further adding to the woes of the patients and their families. It is our humble appeal to the concerned departments to ensure the availability of factors across the state,” said Manchanda.

As per the recent guidelines, the centre had advised the state governments to ensure essential services for patients with blood disorders like hemophilia, he said.