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Ghaziabad: Fetus aborted due to lack of prenatal hemophilia test

Rohit Shishodia
A Ghaziabad woman had to abort her baby in November 2015, just because she could not undergo the prenatal test for hemophilia due to lack of the facility in government hospitals in Delhi. Her first child suffers from hemophilia, so she and her husband did not want to take the risk the second time.

She and her husband, Kishan Lal, first went to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital where the prenatal test for hemophilia was not available.

“We then went to AIIMS and took several rounds of the hospital. But we could not get the test done due to long dates for the test. Left with no option, we had to abort the baby. This shattered our dream of having a disease-free second child” said Lal.

The situation has still not improved. Patients of hemophilia have complained that they are deprived of treatment facilities in government hospitals in Delhi. They say that diagnostic and treatment facilities in government hospitals excluding AIIMS are only for name's sake and they have to run from pillar to post to get the treatment.

The cost of hemophilia test is very high. A patient has to spend from Rs 8000 to Rs 10000 in private labs to ascertain which type of hemophilia he or she is affected with. This diagnostic facility is available in only Delhi-AIIMS but the huge rush and waiting time there demoralizes the patients.

Though LNJP hospital also has the facility of detection of hemophilia, it lacks detection of classes of hemophilia which is only available in Delhi-AIIMS, says Kishan Lal whose 7-year-old son suffers from the bleeding disorder.

These shocking facts have been confirmed through RTI replies, which have exposed that Delhi and Central-run government hospitals lack crucial services needed by hemophilia patients.

Different RTI replies reveal that Delhi’s RML and DDU hospitals do not have factor assay test, and prenatal diagnosis of hemophilia -CVS pregnancy test. Treatment of Factor 7 is not available in LNJP while the hospital only provides PT, APTT and clotting factor tests.

Similarly, treatment of Factor 7 is also not available in Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital. Safdarjung hospital does not have prenatal diagnosis.


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