When is World Hemophilia Day?
April 17th is World Hemophilia Day.
What is World Hemophilia Day?
It’s not likely you’ve ever panicked over a knife cut while slicing apples. Just give it a band aid and move on, right? For people with hemophilia though, that would be a life-threatening event. The medical community uses World Hemophilia Day to raise awareness about this condition.
For most of us, our little cuts and scrapes stop bleeding because of the platelets and proteins in our blood. Those two ingredients work together to create clots where blood vessels get injured. People with hemophilia, called hemophiliacs, have low quantities of these clotting elements. Without treatment, they could bleed to death from otherwise minor wounds.
Hemophilia is genetic. There is no cure, but treatment involves regular injections of the absent clotting factors. Rare cases of hemophilia involve frequent spontaneous bleeding with no obvious cause. Even a mild case of hemophilia can be debilitating though, especially if adequate medical treatment is unavailable.
World Hemophilia Day promotes education about hemophilia across the world, especially among the global poor.
Facts about World Hemophilia Day!
- Approximately 1 in every 1,000 people has a bleeding disorder, and 1 in 10,000 people are born with hemophilia. About 20,000 Americans have hemophilia.
- There are two types of hemophilia, types A, B, and C. They indicate different clotting factors are missing, but the result is the same.
- Hemophilia A and B predominantly affects boys, but girls can be carriers.
- Hemophilia C is the rarest type and primarily affects Jewish people of Ashkenazi descent.
How to celebrate World Hemophilia Day:
- Attend an educational event for hemophilia.
- Donate to organizations that fight hemophilia among the global poor.
What’s the hashtag for World Hemophilia Day?
Raise awareness by using #WorldHemophiliaDay on social media.