World Haemophilia Day

April 17th is celebrated as World Haemophilia Day across the world by Haemophilia organizations. Celebration of this day is a broad step to increase awareness among the people around the world about the hereditary genetic disorder called Haemophilia.

The World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) decided to observe April 17th as World Haemophilia Day in 1989 in honor of WFH founder Frank Schnabel, as the date was his birth anniversary.
World Haemophilia Day is celebrated all around the world to encourage people to improve life of Haemophilia patients and to raise awareness of bleeding disorders.

Haemophilia

Hemophilia is a lifelong genetic bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. The disease is only caused in males while females only serve as the carrier of the disease. Disease is only inherited from infected fathers to their sons, in rare cases can also be caused by mutation in gene of mother or child.

People with hemophilia do not have enough clotting factor, a protein in blood that controls bleeding. The severity of a person’s hemophilia depends on the amount of clotting factor that is missing. The main danger is uncontrolled internal bleeding that starts spontaneously or results from injury. Bleeding into joints and muscles can cause stiffness, pain, severe joint damage, disability, and sometimes death.