HRSA has awarded three grants totaling $524,521 to support comprehensive medical care for the inherited blood disorder thalassemia and a grant for $360,000 for hemophilia treatment.
 
The three-year thalassemia grants will support systems of comprehensive care – including screening, diagnosis, education, counseling and specialized medical management – for individuals and families at risk for or affected by the ailment.. Awards went to Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, Calif., $175,000; Children’s Hospital in Boston, $174,521; and Weill Medical College, New York City, $175,000.
 
Thalassemia is a group of inherited blood disorders characterized by absence or decreased production of hemoglobin, the part of red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body.   The disorders cause anemia and, in some severe cases, death at birth.  In the United States, thalassemia is found in people of African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and South Asian descent. 
 
Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., received the $360,000 award to support a network of nine federally funded hemophilia treatment centers in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and South Carolina.  These centers provide comprehensive care for more than 1,700 men and women with hemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders. Some center patients have HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C as well.
 
Hemophilia is characterized by delayed clotting of the blood that can result in difficulty controlling bleeding after even minor injuries.  It primarily affects males.
 
Both grant programs are administered by HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (www.mchb.hrsa.gov).