Hemophilia

Hemophilia Report

Gunnar Thompson

    Hemophilia is a blood clotting disorder. Hemophilia is caused by a defect in one of the genes that determine how the body makes blood clotting factor VIII or IX. The body leaves out proteins that help blood clot normally.  People with this disorder will bleed longer than someone who doesn't have it if they are cut or just bleed. Small cuts are not very dangerous but if you were to bleed internally, that is when it could be life threatening. There is no cure to Hemophilia but there are a few treatments. One of the treatments is called replacement therapy. Replacement therapy is the infusion of plasma that doesn’t have hemophilia can help stop bleeding. Hemophilia has been around forever really. In the 1800s Queen Victoria of England had hemophilia and passed it down to her children and her children’s children. Eventually four of her descendants died of brain hemorrhages because of Hemophilia.  Hemophilia affects 1 in 5,000 male births in the U.S. There are currently about 20,000 people living with Hemophilia in the U.S.