By Amina Abdul Salam CAIRO, Oct 8, 2018 - The first centre for the treatment and care of people with haemophilia has opened at the Misr hospital, affiliated to the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company. During a press conference, the role played by the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) and the pharmaceutical company in supplying haemophilia patients with up-to-date treatment techniques, particularly recombinant factors that are produced by using biotechnology was highlighted. The Ministry of Health and Population will run the new centre entirely through the HIA. The cost of the construction of the centre was LE2 million including all medical equipment and furnishings. The centre is a result of fruitful co-operation between the HIA and the pharmaceutical company through a protocol signed to provide the most updated therapies in this domain. The courses include programmes focused on the most modern management techniques such as "remote treatment" of patients, in addition to a programme known as "Meet the Expert". The pharmaceutical company will prepare a complete laboratory that includes blood coagulation devices. It will also set up a database of the people with haemophilia in Egypt. Dr Soheir Abdel Hamid, the HIA Chairperson, said that the inauguration of the new centre was an important step in dealing with haemophilia according to the most up-to-date therapeutic techniques. She said that the main goal in treating haemophilia was to prevent bleeding and to accelerate treatment by giving the patient what he or she needed of recombinant factors in order to avoid complications in the long term. "For those with the disease, 70-80 per cent of most bleeding manifestations occur in the joints, 10-20 per cent in the muscle and soft tissue and about five per cent in the central nervous system with other types of bleeding that may threaten the patient's life and require immediate treatment", said Dr Naglaa Shahin, Head of the Haematology Department at the Misr children's Hospital. Haemophilia is a genetic disease usually transmitted by genes inherited from the father or mother. It is a relatively rare X-linked congenital bleeding disorder. There are two types of haemophilia: haemophilia A and haemophilia B. Haemophilia A is more common than haemophilia B, representing 80-85 per cent of the total hemophilia population. Since haemophilia A and B are caused by a defect in the X (sex) chromosome, they generally affect males while females are carriers. It is a lifelong condition with a tendency for prolonged bleeding that occurs spontaneously in those with severe haemophilia.
