Lifespan of People with Hemophilia

In 1965, researchers described a simple method for concentrating clotting factor VIII from plasma using cryoprecipitation (N Engl J Med 1965; 273:1443). Based on this method, commercial preparation of factor VIII concentrate became feasible, and the product was distributed worldwide. The survival of people with hemophilia, which had been dismal up until that time, improved dramatically. However, the spread of HIV from contaminated concentrates produced from 1979 to 1985 greatly increased mortality rates again. During the more than 20 years since that catastrophe, how have hemophiliacs fared? The United Kingdom Haemophilia Centre Doctors’ Organisation analyzed mortality rates from 1977 to 2000 of 6018 hemophiliacs who were not infected with …