Every April 17, World Haemophilia Day is recognised worldwide to increase awareness of haemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders. This is a critical effort since with increased awareness comes better diagnosis and access to care for the millions who remain without treatment.

World Haemophilia Day was started in 1989 by the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) which chose to bring the community together on April 17 in honour of WFH founder Frank Schnabel’s birthday. World Federation of Haemophilia headquarters in Montreal, Canada

Key facts :
• The current President of World Federation of Haemophilia is Alain Weill.

• Theme: Building a family of support

• The WFH which has its mark in 113 countries, has organizations and volunteers who give aid to people in these countries.

• Hemophilia is a rare genetic blood disorder in which the blood looses its tendency to clot normally. Due to lack of sufficient blood-clotting proteins, Hemophilia patients bleed for a much longer time after an injury.

• Hemophilia are of two types- Hemophilia A and Hemophilia B. Each of them is categorized with low levels of certain clotting factor.

• Hemophilia is caused by genetic mutation. It is transmitted by genes of parents and caused when antibodies formed in one’s own body destroys one of the genes that determines how the body makes blood clotting factor VIII or IX.