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Patrick, Hemophilia

"90% of people with hemophilia contracted HIV and/or hepatitis-C in the late '80s and early '90s because of the blood contamination crisis. That is one of the most unfortunate events in American health history. On the converse, today we have the medicine to live very normal lives. I’m a part of the first fully healthy generation of people with hemophilia. And yet, 80% of the world still doesn’t have access to the medicine or care that we do, [which] allows someone like me to live to see beyond the age of 3 or 4. The history is dark and the people who lived through it still feel the effects of that. It’s a very conflicted community. It’s strange to look and feel normal but be a part of something that is very specifically complicated."