KHF facilitates empowerment and self-advocacy; provides information/referrals, seminars, and summer camp for children and teens. A person with hemophilia or a related inherited bleeding disorder must be careful about minor injuries the rest of us hardly notice. Children and their parents must remain constantly vigilant. Many activities, like riding a bicycle, must be approached with caution. There
are other persistent challenges associated with inherited bleeding disorders. Treatment, which involves the infusion of the missing clotting factors into the bloodstream, is extremely expensive. Because the condition is lifelong and, as yet, incurable, treatment may never be stopped. In addition, degenerative orthopedic problems often develop as the result of repeated bleeding in the joints. Viral infections, such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, have been contracted in the past from contaminated blood products. In fact, HIV/AIDS has been the single, most frequently fatal, health complication for individuals with hemophilia.
