Haemophilia is a blood condition caused by a deficiency in an essential clotting factor. It is a life-long genetic condition. Females act as carriers, with males inheriting the condition. It affects approximately 6,000 people in the UK. The most common type of haemophilia is haemophilia A, which results from a deficiency in blood clotting factor VIII.

As well as bleeding for longer than normal from external cuts and grazes, people with haemophilia also suffer from internal bleeding into joints and muscles. This causes acute pain and can lead to severe joint damage and disability.

In the past, the impact of haemophilia on people’s lives was severe. Children, for example, would be restricted from taking part in normal boisterous activities, and education and employment opportunities would also be severely limited. However, steady advances in treatment mean that, today, the aim for people with haemophilia is to live as normal a life as possible.

Modern treatment of haemophilia involves either continually replacing the missing blood clotting factor by infusing it on a regular basis (prophylactic therapy) or infusing it at the first sign of a bleed (on demand therapy). In the UK, the aim now is also to treat all patients with recombinant - synthetically derived – products, thereby minimising the risk of viral contamination with life-threatening infections, such as HIV, hepatitis C and vCJD.