The Luxembourg Association of Haemophiliacs is involved in the creation of an alternative solution.
The goal is to locally produce a treatment based on blood plasma for haemophiliacs in developing countries. The first pilot project will be launched at the transfusion centre in Dakar, Senegal in the near future, according to Dr Jean-Claude Faber, Haematologist and President of the Luxembourg Association of Haemophiliacs (ALH). Dr Faber explains that it is not possible to just give a haemophiliac blood plasma. It has to be concentrated first, followed by the application of a “virus inactivation procedure” to prevent the product from infecting the haemophiliac, for instance with HIV or Hepatitis C.
This risk is still very real in developing countries to this day. At the moment, haemophiliacs living there receive simple plasma. The purified plasma product, which is planned to be produced in a first phase in Dakar, helps improve blood coagulation, which in turn assures that wounds close better.
According to Dr Faber, it is “a relatively rudimentary product that is nonetheless highly effective and safe”. A similar product was used in Luxembourg in the 1960s.
To kickstart the pilot project and ensure that it can be implemented in as many countries as possible, the ALH is founding an international coalition with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other global organisations. The ALH has campaigned for this project for several years.
Dr Faber hopes that the coalition agreement will be signed “at the end of April”, stressing that the pilot project “has been meticulously fleshed out by the ALH and is ready to go”.
The project would be an important step to offer haemophiliacs in developing countries a better perspective. While Haemophilia is a rare disease, fewer than 5,000 people are affected and most of them men, it can make something as mundane as hitting your knee cause a lot of pain and problems without the right therapy. Bigger wounds can even lead to death.
