Ten‑year‑old Emmanuel was finally diagnosed with haemophilia after a severe bleed following a tooth extraction, ending years of unexplained bruising that his mother Blessing had chased through hospitals, prayer houses and traditional rites. Blessing recounted, "We went to various hospitals, prayer houses for deliverance and even traditional places, where we were asked to perform cleansing rites and administered some traditional purification. Yet, the bleeding persisted and we still didn't understand what was happening," she said. A similar tragedy unfolded for Maryam Abdullahi, who lost her newborn first son to uncontrolled bleeding after circumcision and only recognized the cause years later when her third son received a haemophilia diagnosis, stating, "We blamed the local woman that carried out the circumcision, not until years later when my third son was diagnosed with haemophilia that I understood what actually happened," she said.
Health experts say such stories are not isolated, pointing to a hidden crisis of undiagnosed bleeding disorders across Nigeria. The World Health Organization estimates that only about 34 per cent of the global haemophilia population has been identified. At the recent Nigeria Inherited Blood Disorders Leadership Forum, Prof. Titilope Adeyemo, Director of the Haemophilia Treatment Centre at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, noted that Nigeria has diagnosed just six per cent of its estimated haemophilia cases, far behind the roughly 81 per cent detection rate in developed nations. She added that diagnostic capacity remains confined to a handful of urban facilities capable of factor assays, while irregular donations of clotting concentrates leave many patients without reliable treatment.
Prof. Sulaimon Akanmu of the University of Lagos estimated that, with a population exceeding 200 million, about 18,000 Nigerians are likely living with haemophilia, yet only 941 have been diagnosed, a figure he described as grossly inadequate. In response, the Haemophilia Foundation of Nigeria launched "Road to Clot: Reaching the Undiagnosed," a community‑based screening programme aimed at identifying patients early and bridging gaps in care. Executive Director Megan Adediran, herself a mother
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