Medical practitioners in Cavite convened at the Cavite Collaboration Center for Public Health Auditorium in Trece Martires City on Tuesday for the first Hemophilia Awareness Symposium in the province.
Attending were city and municipal health officers, doctors and dentists from public hospitals, nurses from the rural health units, members of the PWD federation, employees of the provincial government mainly from the Provincial Health Office, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, Provincial Information and Community Affairs Department, and some members of the Hemophilia Advocates Philippines.
With the noticeable low level of public awareness and even of some hospital personnel on hemophilia, the HAP-Cavite Chapter led by Ms. Lota N. Madamba tapped the provincial government through Provincial Health Officer Dr. Gilbert Ilog and Epidemiologist Dr. Nelson Soriano for the one-day activity.
It encompassed talks about the bleeding disorder, its history, and how it affects children and female patients. The organization aimed to raise social and political awareness for them to lobby their advocacy and seek legislative measures that will address the hemophilia medical condition.
Hemophilia is a genetically inherited bleeding disorder in which the person’s blood does not clot normally. People with hemophilia can experience spontaneous bleeds with no known cause, internal bleeding, and painful swollen joints. Medical scientists have not found a cure yet for what is termed a “royal disease.”
There are about 10, 000 Filipinos with hemophilia and about a million others with von Willebrand disease and other bleeding disorders in the Philippines, but only about 1,500 have been registered with the Philippine Hemophilia Foundation.