ICMR has developed an affordable test kit for diagnosis of common blood disorders such as severe Haemophilia A and von Willebrand disease
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has developed an affordable test kit for diagnosis of common blood disorders such as severe Haemophilia A and von Willebrand disease (VWD). According to the ICMR scientists, the diagnosis can be done within 30 minutes of blood sample collection.
Hemophilia is an inherited disorder of blood clotting where deficiency of certain clotting factors leads to excessive bleeding for a longer time than others after any injury, injections, tooth extractions or operations. In Hemophilia A clotting factor VIII is deficient and in Hemophilia B clotting factor IX is lacking.
The annual global survey of World Federation of Hemophilia had in 2016 reported that almost 50 percent of the world’s hemophilia population lives in India.
According to Hemophilia Federation India, there are about 20727 people with Hemophilia in India (data till 31st March 2018) of which 81% is Hemophilia A, 12% is Hemophilia B and about 3% is attributable to von Willebrand disease (VWD). But it is only the tip of the iceberg as most people with Hemophilia in India are undiagnosed and have limited access to healthcare due to lack of basic knowledge about bleeding disorders. The burden of untreated Hemophilia cases and disability is high.
The annual global survey of World Federation of Hemophilia had in 2016 reported that almost 50 percent of the world’s hemophilia population lives in India.
The cost-effective point of care (POC) rapid diagnostic test developed by the ICMR- National Institute of Immunohaematology (NIIH), Mumbai is first in the world POC test for specific diagnosis of any common bleeding disorder. Working cost of these kits is less than Rs. 50 in comparison to existing conventional test for the diseases that cost around Rs. 4000 to ₹10000, the ICMR on Tuesday said.
Lack of awareness, lack of diagnostic facilities and high cost of tests are some of the factors for the under diagnosis of bleeding disorders in India, the ICMR said.
Diagnosis of VWD requires a battery of expensive tests. Patients with severe Haemophilia A or VWD can have life threatening spontaneous or post-traumatic bleeding like brain haemorrhage and gastrointestinal bleed or they may have bleeding into joints or superficial bleeding from the nose or gums.
“In an Emergency Medical setting, it is important to have a quick diagnosis of bleeding disorders for treatment with specific products like the blood components or commercially available factor concentrates which are exorbitantly expensive. Both Haemophilia A and VWD are under diagnosed disorders in our country. There are only handful of comprehensive diagnostic Centres in the country for bleeding disorders,” ICMR said in a statement.
“This rapid test kit can be used for the diagnosis of undiagnosed patients/ menorrhagia cases/ post-partum haemorrhage (PPH), gynecological complications with bleeding history, recovery of factors in the transfused Haemophilia A patients and also for differential diagnosis of Haemophilia A and VWD. Since it does not require any expertise or infrastructure, this can easily access any level of health care system including primary health care centres (PHCs),” it said.
