3 weeks Ago By Dennis Peprah
News Ghana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, Dennis Peprah, https://newsghana.com.gh/ghana-confronts-haemophilia-diagnosis-gap-as-experts-highlight-gender-disparities/The nation’s estimated prevalence of Haemophilia, a bleeding order hover around 7,131, Dr Adwoa Agyemang Adu Gyamfi, a member of the Haemophilia Society of Ghana has said.
The figure, she added, represented eight percent of the 93,985 number of people living with haemophilia in Africa, according to the 2023 Annual Global Survey of the World Federation of Haemophilia.Yet, Dr Gyamfi expressed worry that Ghana’s number of diagnosed cases was only 525, describing the figure as critically low and calling for urgent action to tackle the gaps in diagnosis and access.These statistics revealed a stark reality as thousands of people in the country might be living with bleeding disorders without knowing it, with many of them mostly women and girls.
Globally, she said there were 390,630 identified individuals living with bleeding disorders, saying 56 percent had haemophilia, 26 percent with von Willebrand Disease (vWD), and 18 percent diagnosed with other bleeding disorders.“Of this global population, 65 percent are male and 34 percent are female”, Dr Gyamfi told the Journalists, as Ghana joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2025 World Haemophilia Day.Each year, on April 17, the world unites to raise awareness about haemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders and the theme for the 2025 celebration is “Women and Girls Bleed Too”.
Dr Gyamfo said the theme sought to challenge long-held assumptions that bleeding disorders affect only males with haemophilia more frequently diagnosed in male.Many females also lived with symptoms of undiagnosed or misdiagnosed bleeding disorders and left without treatment or support, she stated.“There is a significant representation of females in the nation’s haemophilia estimates, many of whom experience symptoms that go unnoticed or are wrongly attributed to other causes”, she stated.
Describing bleeding disorders as a silent burden on women and girls, Dr Eunice Ahmed Agyemang, a Hematologist explained that females could also experience bleeding symptoms as carriers of the haemophilia gene or through other inherited disorders like von Willebrand Disease.“Women and girls may suffer from heavy, prolonged menstrual bleeding, excessive bleeding during childbirth or surgeries and unexplained bruising”, she added.She said “too often, women and girls are told that heavy periods are just something they have to live with, but in many cases, this is a sign of an underlying bleeding disorder.
We must listen to them and take their symptoms seriously”.Dr Agyemang explained that bleeding disorders were medical conditions where the “blood does not clot as it should”.She said that happened because certain essential components needed for clotting are missing or not working properly and as a result individuals may experience prolonged bleeding, either spontaneously or after injury, surgery, or childbirth.
Dr Agyemang said bleeding disorders might be inherited (passed down from one or both parents through genes) or acquired (developing later in life due to other medical conditions, medications, or unknown causes). News Ghana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, Dennis Peprah, https://newsghana.com.
gh/ghana-confronts-haemophilia-diagnosis-gap-as-experts-highlight-gender-disparities/.
