Haemophilia in South Asia: A perspective from Bangladesh.

Unlike India and Pakistan, no specialised haemophilia treatment centre is established in Bangladesh and other lower-middle income countries. According to the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH), an estimated 1,125,000 males are currently living with haemophilia worldwide, including 418,000 with severe haemophilia.1,2 Notably, about 80% of people with haemophilia (PWH) reside in developing countries.3 Haemophilia is an incurable disease except for some advanced therapies (i.e. gene therapy) offering a potential cure, which are only available for a limited number of patients.4 Patients require life-long expensive factor replacement therapy. Haemophilia is a rare X-linked bleeding disorder affecting clotting factor VIII (Haemophilia A) or factor IX (Haemophilia B) genes, particularly manifested among males, while females are usually asymptomatic carriers. [Extracted from the article]