Lack of state funds hinder hemophilia treatment in Armenia
17.04.2013,
20:53
Lack of funds to buy the necessary medicaments remains Armenia’s main hindrance against hemophilia treatment, Tanyan Khachatryan, Head of Armenian Association for Hemophilia Patients, said Wednesday.

YEREVAN, April 17. /ARKA/. Lack of funds to buy the necessary medicaments remains Armenia’s main hindrance against hemophilia treatment, Tanyan Khachatryan, Head of Armenian Association for Hemophilia Patients, said Wednesday.
There are 238 people who currently suffer from hemophilia in Armenia, of them 48 are children of up to 18 years old. The most common form of this disease found Armenia is hemophilia A (174 patients). The State allocates 99,000 drams per year for one patient treatment. Over the past five years, only one patient died from a brain haemorrhage in Armenia. The 70% of the patients have some type of disability.
“One patient annually needs from 10,000 to 12,000 International Units (IU) of drugs, only 2,000 IU is imported to Armenia through budget funds. Thus, the State supplies all hemophilia patients with only 400,000 IU,” Khachatryan said and added that the remaining part is bought through humanitarian aid provided by some international organizations such as World Federation of Hemophilia and other charity foundations.
She also added at present thirty patients need surgery in Armenia. Senior hematologist of Armenia Smbat Dagbashyan noted Armenia produces drugs from blood plasma, but they are ineffective in severe cases.
He noted hemophilia patients who need surgery must be provided with expensive pre-treatment (up to 50,000 dollars) and imported drugs.
Dagbashyan added the patients with severe cases still receive treatment through humanitarian aid.
“Over the past 4 years nearly 20 surgeries have been made in Armenia. We also plan to make 2 surgeries annually through budget funds,” he informed.
Hemophilia s a group of hereditary genetic disorders that impair the body's ability to control blood clotting or coagulation, which is used to stop bleeding when a blood vessel is broken.—0-