Treatment for haemophiliacs still a distant dream in Karnataka

Effective and speedy treatment for all haemophiliacs still appears to be a distant dream in Karnataka even as the World Haemophilia Day-2016 is being celebrated on Sunday. Though treatment facilities have improved considerably over the last few years, concentration of facilities at few places, lack of coordination between government medical colleges and district hospitals have continued to haunt patients.

“Haemophilia, a rare bleeding disorder, requires a Comprehensive Treatment Centre (CTC) to treat such patients. There are only four centres in the state - Bengaluru, Manipal, Davangere and Hubballi. On many occasions, deaths occur due to excess bleeding by the time patients are admitted at the CTCs or will develop permanent disabilities,” says Dr Suresh Hanagawadi, president, Karnataka Haemophilia Society (KHS).

Realising that the medicine are too expensive, the state government has decided to provide Anti-Haemophilic Factor (AHF) to arrest bleeding in haemophiliacs at district hospitals.

The government’s initiative was of a little help as the district hospitals lacked CTCs to administer AHF. On the other hand government medical colleges have CTCs, but bereft of factors.

There are coordination issues between Medical Education department, under which medical colleges come, and the Family and Health Welfare department which control district hospitals, delaying the treatment. On a few occasions in the past, AHFs had to be sent back as they could not be used within the stipulated time.

Apart from the government initiatives, the CTCs are available in six private medical colleges.
The Karnataka Haemophilia Society, which manages a CTC in Davangere, submitted a report to the Medical Education department in 2012, requesting the government to ensure AHFs in all the 13 government medical colleges and 30 district hospitals so that the speedy treatment could be provided.

It took about four years for the government to respond and an amount of Rs 8 crore was released to set up a nodal centre at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMRCI) for setting up of CTCs across the state.

  “The government has identified BMRCI to establish CTCs in various medical colleges in the State. The BMRCI has one CTC and we plan to have three CTCs in North Karnataka and two in South Karnataka,” BMRCI director Dr Devadas P K told Deccan Herald.

However, the BMCRI is yet to identify these colleges and the talks are on with various college directors. “We plan to set up the CTCs in those places where the incidence of Hemophilia is more,” he added.

He said the aim is to make one medical college adopt around two district hospitals to ensure speedy availability of treatment. “ Our aim is to ensure CTC in very taluk headquarter in future so that treatment is ensured to all. Hemophiliacs, once they realised the nature of the ailment, tend to settle down in those place where CTCs are located. We want to prevent the migration by setting up CTC at every taluk,” he added.
DH News Service