Hemophilia patients at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) are frustrated due to a medication shortage.
According to the Ghana Hemophilia Society, the situation is due to delays in processing import permits issued by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to clear donated drugs.
This has resulted in prophylaxis treatment suspension, and hospital supplies have been depleted, putting patients in need of surgery or urgent care in a vulnerable position.
Hemophilia is a rare disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot in the usual way because it doesn’t have enough blood-clotting proteins (clotting factors).
Prophylaxis treatments are vaccines and medication regimens that prevent an illness or a recurrence of a condition.
Providing an update on the situation, the Deputy Medical Director of KATH, Dr. Yaw Opare Larbi, has explained that while the hospital has sufficient medication for treatment, the low supply is hindering prophylaxis administration.
The hospital is currently prioritizing patients with active bleeding for medication, while temporarily suspending prophylactic doses.
“The current situation is that the factors are in low supply. We have enough for treatment, but we are not doing prophylaxis. So what the parents are used to is two things, both prophylaxis and treatment. And now we are not given the prophylactic doses because we want the stock to be enough for people who come and who need treatment. Those who come with active bleeding,” Dr. Opare Larbi noted.
He added, “So that’s the situation now. We haven’t run out of stock, but what we are doing is managing the stock so that it will last long enough for the medication that has been imported to arrive for us to now resume the prophylactic arm of their management”.