Understanding Hemophilia

By Marjorie Gorospe INQUIRER.net IN an effort to promote awareness on Hemophilia, Laureen Kelly, founder of Save One Life and Project Share, went all the way to the Philippines to discuss hemophilia. Hemophilia is an inherent and a lifelong blood disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. A person with this kind of disorder suffers severe pain depending on the amount of clotting factor that is missing. A person with hemophilia experiences bleeding faster than normal people and they also suffer severe joint damage that may lead to disabilility and sometimes death. In the Philippines, there are over 6,000 people with this disease but only 1,010 are registered with the National Hemophilia Center. With this, Kelley sees the need of medicine in the country, which would be very expensive. She is now working on helping out the carriers of the disease in coordination with the Hemophilia Association of the Philippines for Love and Service (HAPLOS). Kelly is now finding a better way that can help the country become more equipped with adequate facilities for hemophiliacs. "If some of the poorest countries made it, so will the Philippines, but it is a matter of setting priorities to the sufferers of hemophilia," she says. Since her son is also a carrier of hemophilia, Kelly tells parents like her to stay strong and to continue sending their children to school despite of their situation. Because of fear of injury, people with hemophilia are discouraged from performing strenuous physical activities. Meanwhile, another kind of blood disorder, known as Von Willebrand disease, is an epidemic in the country but cannot be easily identified due to lack of equipment to diagnose if one carries this kind of disease. Save One Life and Project Share is a US-based non-government organization that helps people with hemophilia.