Who was the first person to discover hemophilia?

Answer 1

Putting an actual name to the discovery of hemophilia is impossible. In ancient hebrew texts (100s AD) there is reference to hemophilia and even recognition the it was genetic and sex linked. There was however no understanding of the disorder, what caused it, treatment of it, or even a name given to it.

In the 900s AD, and arabic doctor named Albucasis described what he termed as Blood Disease. He described the inheritance pattern and some symptoms such as uncontrolled bleeding from minor trauma.

In time, the understanding of how the the disorder could be treated developed before they even understood what the cause was. Without any understanding of genetics or clotting factor proteins (or even that such things existed for that matter) some hemophiliacs were given whole blood transfusions to assist their clotting (probably started as a means to simply replace lost blood).

The term haemophilia was first coined in 1928 by Friedrich Hopff (this term is still the standard way of writing "hemophilia" in much of the world).

It was not until the 1940s that science stepped in and actually showed that blood transfusions did in fact work to normalize the clotting of a person with hemophilia. This study was conducted by a doctor Pavlosky from Argentina.

In the mid 1960s the clotting factor proteins were discovered and the true understanding of hemophilia began.

Who first discovered hemophilia? ...Probably the family of the first hemophiliac, well before recorded history. Discovery and understanding are completely different monsters.