Haemophilia survey needed, say healthcare professionals

Panaji, Feb 16 (UNI) Healthcare professionals have underscored the need for creating awareness about Haemophilia and opined that their should be a survey to ascertain the incidence of the rare blood disorder in the country.

Baxter Healthcare Group general manager in charge of South Asia Sanjiv Verma, while speaking to UNI here, rued that in India no data was available on haemophiliacs. Developed countries like Singapore had maintained relevant data right from the birth of an infant, he pointed out. Baxter is a global supplier of synthetic drugs for haemophiliacs.

The Delhi-based Haemophilics Federation of India has so far registered about 10,000 patients suffering from this rare blood disorder, Mr Verma, who was here to attend the Association for Physicians of India conference (APICON-07), informed.

Mr Verma said Baxter was discussing with several state governments, including Goa and Maharashtra, for providing haemophiliacs with drugs at subsidised rates and even free of cost.

Karnataka and Pondicherry have started purchasing the generic drugs and distributing them to the patients under the Universal Healthcare Mission, he said.

Besides haemophilia, Baxter has also concentrated on popularising its ''peritoneal dialysis'' kits for the management of kidney-failed patients. These kits enable the patients to undergo dialysis at their own homes instead of hospitals.

Baxter's business unit director Sanjiv Navangul said these kits cost around Rs 16,000 per month against the expenditure of Rs 25,000 in hospitals.

''Even a patient in a remote village can undergo dialysis in his own house using these kits,'' he said, while informing that the incidence of kidney-failed patients in India was 225 per one million population.

Mr Navangul informed that at present there are a total of 3,000 patients who are undergoing dialysis in their own homes.

Mr Verma and Mr Navangul also informed about Baxter's aspirators that help in estimating the infection levels in hospitals. The aspirators suck the air emanating from hospitals and calibrate the content and extent of various infections.

UNI