Chantiana: March 2011

Hemophilia

Hemophilia (heem-o-FILL-ee-ah) is a rare bleeding disorder in which your blood doesn't clot normally. For example if you have hemophilia and get an injury you would bleed a longer time than others. You also can bleed internally. This bleeding can damage your organs or tissues.

Alexei Nikolaevich: Inherited hemophilia from his mother Alexandra. His mother hired a priest named Grigori Rasputin who claimed to have the ability to heal Alexei.

History:

Hemophilia was first recognized in the Jews. They stated a law that if a woman had two sons that died from circumcision her third son would not be required to be circumcised. This is when they recognized that women carried the hemophilia gene. The hemophilia blood disorder became known as the royal disease because Queen Victoria was a carrier and passed the carrier down to many of her daughters. In the royal families of many nations in Europe would marry into each other’s families.

Symptoms:

Big bruises
Bleeding into muscles and joints, especially the knees, elbow, and ankles
Spontaneous bleeding
Bleeding for a long time after getting a cut
Serious internal bleeding into vital organs

Causes:

· The disorder is inherited.

· It most often affects males.

· It is a recessive sex linked disorder.

· The x chromosome of a recessive a trait.

How is it diagnosed? :

How long it takes for your blood to clot
Your blood has low levels of any of the clotting factors
Whether one of the clotting factors is completely missing from your blood

Treatment or cure:

· The main treatment for hemophilia is called replacement therapy. Concentrates of VIII are slowly dripped in or injected into a vein. This helps replace the clotting factor that's missing or low.

Current Research:

· A new combination in VIII

Foundation: Hemophilia of Georgia-www.hog.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVHbMuBK8CI&feature=related