I was born with blue skin. The trauma of being held left me bruised. The family wanted to appease the gods. It is very hard for the body to stop bleeding due to a genetic blood disorder called hemophilia. It's possible to bleed without an injury or known cause if you have severe haemophilia. I used to go to A&E.
You have to stop bleeding with injections. These injections are only available to a small group in the developing world. Multinational corporations make money selling drugs in low income countries.
The cost of a clotting injection in India is more than double what it is in the US. You can understand why my family asked for divine intervention when I was born.
The human toll of NCDs is growing. More than 40 million of the 56 million people who die each year are in the developing world. You can't catch NCDs like a virus. They are caused by a number of factors. Cancers, chronic respiratory illnesses, Diabetes and cardiovascular disease are the main types. Around 80% of the world's population is preventable, and all are on the rise as older populations and lifestyles push being healthy a global phenomenon. The poor now have a hold on NCDs, which used to be seen as illnesses of the wealthy. Being poor makes it less likely that you will be diagnosed with disease or death. The cost to families, economies and communities is staggeringly high when it comes to tackling common and chronic conditions. NCDs are seeing a fraction of the money needed being invested or donated in low income countries. Cancer death rates have gone past the death toll from Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids in recent years. The Guardian is reporting on NCDs in the developing world in a new series called "A common condition". Tracy McVeigh is an Editor.Quick GuideShow
I can't think of a time when I wasn't in pain. It could have been the cause of my attention deficit disorder. I woke up with a mouth full of blood and a pillow covered in blood. It was unimaginably painful when I had bleeds inside my body. It felt as if something was burning through my body.
There would be episodes for a while. I hallucinated the entire conversation because I hadn't slept for days or taken too many drugs.
My left knee was liked by hemophilia. The thigh and calf muscles were wasted and the joint was filled with blood as a result of the bleeding. Visitors would be shown it by schoolteachers. The knee was made hard to move by repeated bleeding, which weakened the muscle and made it more vulnerable to bleeding. You watch your mobility decline. If you need a job or admission into school, you lie about it and get another job before they realize.
The NHS put me on prophylactic treatment. For the first time, I walked more than 100 yards without pain
I had a bleed in my ankle on New Year's Day. As fireworks exploded and the night turned to day, my family held crushed ice around the swelling. It wasn't possible to bleed because my flesh was frozen. That wasn't very common. It didn't happen again.
You don't need miracles in the west. There are freetting injections. They are taken every two or three days and you don't see much of them. Prophylactic treatment is what it is called. It's so common here in the UK that researchers need to update old literature to keep up with the times. Only a small amount of haemophiliacs live in that era. The world is still in darkness.
Injustices are caused by the suffering caused by health inequalities. Women provide care that isn't provided by health services. My mother washed the pillowcases that had been spattered with blood. She made sure I didn't move my bleeding elbow. She was the one who spread the disease. We would have money for injections if she had built up her savings.
I was put on prophylactic treatment by the National Health Service after moving to the promised land. I woke up to a different lifestyle. I had never walked more than 100 yards without pain. I felt guilty because of the contrast. The tragedy that most others face is not close to my family's story. In low-income countries, haemophilia is fatal. sufferers can't do anything because of the pain and the loss of mobility The entire family is plunged into debt. Governments are too market-friendly to care for and the cost of treatment is too high.
Afghans suffer as Taliban tighten border.
If this is not a form of discrimination, what is it? I used to queue with my family for date-expired injections that corporations or charities had donated to India, and I had to be taken to the queue to show them I was suffering. We left empty-handed many times.
Social necessities are medical interventions. They are not commodities to be traded for profit. We don't know what kind of moral universe we're in.
I asked my uncle what he wanted to see in London. He wanted to get some clotting injections. When I met him to give him his gift, his mouth was full of blood and his tongue was blue, yet he kept the injections aside for an episode that was truly deserving of treatment.
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