Haemophilia

Haemophilia by: Henry Easton Koehler

When someone gets a wound or draws blood, there are usually proteins called clotting factors which combine with blood cells called platelets, to make the blood a more sticky substance which will eventually stop the bleeding. Haemophilia eliminates a good amount of these clotting factors thus making one bleed for an abnormal amount of time. Extreme haemophiliacs can acquire a minor injury and have blood loss for weeks or even months. There are two types of Haemophilia, type A and type B. Type A is most common, occurring in 10,000 male births while type B is present in 1 in 34,000 male births. Haemophilia is a recessive sex linked X chromosome disorder making it way more common in males than females.

Causes Haemophilia is caused by inherited point gene mutations. Haemophilia is a recessive sex linked X chromosome disorder meaning it is carried solely by females but is found mostly in males. The reason for this is that females have two X chromosomes while males have only one, so the defective gene is guaranteed to affect any male who carries it. Because females have two X chromosomes they would have to have two defective copies of the gene, and since Haemophilia is very rare this is an extremely unlikely occurrence. But when the disorder manifests in one of the females X chromosomes it makes them a carrier. For example let’s say a dad has Haemophilia but a mom doesn’t, none of the sons will acquire Haemophilia, rather the daughters will get a Haemophilia gene and once the daughters have kids they’re sons will have a 50% chance of getting the disease and their daughters will have a 50% chance of getting the gene.

Limitations/Benefits The limitations of having Haemophilia consist mostly of being extremely cautious about whatever you do. Playing high contact sports probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Haemophilia patients usually take three injections of a clotting agent medication a week. Benefits would be having to stay healthy. Patients must maintain a healthy wait and exercise constantly because exercising builds muscle which protects joints and decreases excessive bleeding. So Haemophilia is a constant inspiration to stay healthy.

Social/economical/ethical/cultural In a study carried out in Shahid Ghazi Tabatabai Hematology& Oncology Center in Tabriz, 48 hemophiliac patients were selected randomly and tested for physiological disorders. “Sixty seven percent of them were anxious,60% were depressed,60% showed characteristics of aggression,72% had obsessive-compulsive traits and 71% had psychiatric features while 52% showed somatization characteristics. Findings also revealed that occurrence of similar disorders among control group were three to four times lower than hemophiliac patients.” Obvioulsy this would affect these patients socially and culturally because I would assume having these characteristics would hurt your ability to socialize and make friends. Economically the disorder affects family’s who have to pay for the medicine and spend they’re time caring for whoever has haemophilia you miss work and the patients themselves miss a lot of school. If there was someway to know your future child was going to have Haemophilia I would say if you really want to have a child have one. The disorder is very manageable, for the most part you can live out your life regularly while having Haemophilia with a few setbacks. media type="youtube" key="QlkbGSFyNYo" height="315" width="560"

WORK CITED

A., Fakhari. "Psychiatric Disorders in Hemophilic Patients." Psychiatric Disorders in Hemophilia. May-June 20009. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .

"Haemophilia." Haemophilia. 18 July 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .

"Haemophilia." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .