The founder and chief executive, Haemophilia Foundation of Nigeria (HFON), Mrs Megan Buckie Adediran, has disclosed that about 70 million Nigerians live with the blood disorder called haemophilia.
Adeniran, who made the disclosure during a chat in Abuja, said, “The prevalence has been proven to be the same worldwide. It is one in every 10, 000 persons, and if we are a hundred and seventy million Nigerians as claimed now, that is about 17 million persons suffering from haemophilia. Unfortunately, 99 per cent of them are not diagnosed and are suffering it at various degrees in silence, especially in the villages.”
Haemophilia is simply an inherited bleeding disorder in which case the sufferer does not have the ability to form a clot after an injury and tend to bleed longer than normal which, at its peak results in sudden death.
According to Adeniran, persons with haemophilia lack one of the 13 factors required for blood to clot.
She revealed that the inspiration to launch the foundation over a decade ago in Nigeria was due to the fact that she herself has two sons living with haemophilia and the trauma she went through in settling their cases medically.
According to her, haemophilia which is more prevalent in male children has no known cure anywhere in the world yet just like other killer diseases such as AIDS, Ebola but can only be managed to enable victims live normal and longer life.
She said her foundation was floated primarily to help manage the cases of people living with the condition across the country free-of-charge to enable them live normal and fulfilled life.
She said at the moment 260 persons with the condition are in the foundation’s care and there are more to cater for but that the foundation lacks the resource capacity to carry out the free-of-charge management care.
Mrs Adeniran who lamented that attention is not being giving to haemophilia like the other equally dangerous diseased conditions like HIV AIDS said, in as much as her foundation is ready to partner with government, government should as a matter of urgency establish a national haemophilia centre and come up with policies that will encourage testing of children before circumcision.
By Sunday Abah
