Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Anícia Veiga
Published on 2024-04-16 14:25:48
The Director of the National Transfusion Safety Program, Conceição Pinto, reveals that Cape Verde has 31 diagnosed hemophiliac patients and warns that the number is only known because they are patients with severe disease. The reality of patients with mild disease still needs to be known.
Conceição Pinto spoke to the press today, on the sidelines of the commemorative session that anticipated World Hemophilia Day, celebrated annually on April 17.
“Considering the incidence of the disease in the population, we should have between 60 and 70 hemophiliac patients in Cape Verde. At the moment, we have diagnosed 31 who are those who have severe disease, therefore, they have complaints, symptoms, have many hemorrhages, and resort to health services, they are known. We lack the other part, the patients who have mild disease and only have bleeding in trauma situations or when undergoing surgeries,” said Conceição Pinto.
According to Conceição Pinto, the country lacks equipment to diagnose the disease, with the islands of Sal, Maio, and Brava currently being the only ones where no hemophiliac patients are registered.
“We do not have the necessary equipment to diagnose the disease in the country and we always need to resort to services abroad, which is already a limitation. Then, the geographical distribution of patients. We have patients with hemophilia on six islands, only the islands of Maio, Sal, and Brava do not have hemophiliac patients, so this greatly complicates the recognition of the disease and even sending samples for diagnosis,” she emphasized.
The Director of the National Transfusion Safety Program points out that the country’s geographical location makes it difficult to access medication and care for patients.
“Our geographical situation greatly hinders distribution and therefore the management of medications. They are very expensive medications and we are making efforts. Every year we acquire more medications and new medications, but then it becomes difficult to distribute these medications to all patients, on all islands, and even to monitor the treatment,” she justified.
Hemophilia is a genetic-hereditary disease characterized by a disorder in the blood coagulation mechanism and manifests almost exclusively in males. The mutation that causes hemophilia is located on the X chromosome.
In general, women do not develop the disease, but they can be carriers of the genetic mutation that gives rise to it.
Read the original article(Portuguese) on Expresso das Ilhas
