Hemophilia 3

The genetic disorder which I have chosen as the subject of my report is hemophilia. There are two types of hemophilia, hemophilia-A and hemophilia-B. The clinical symptoms of both are very similar so for the purposes of this paper I have chosen to concentrate on hemophilia-A. Hemophilia-A is an X linked bleeding disorder resulting from a defect in a protein known as coagulation factor VIII. Since the disorder is X linked it is expressed mainly …

…the current practice is to treat hemophiliacs with factor VIII only when they have a serious bleeding episode. This can result in chronic joint problems due to constant blood leakage into the joints. If a cheap, effective form of factor VIII could be developed, it might be possible to prescribe factor VIII daily, and avoid joint bleeding altogether. It might also be possible to treat children from infancy so they never experience a bleeding episode.