Nancy Baird, age 13, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

WHAT IS HEMOPHILIA?

Hemophilia is a disease in which clotting of the blood is very slow and bleeding is most difficult to control. The disease is inherited.

Males are the ones usually hit with hemophilia although women ocassionally are stricken. Mothers are the ones who transmit the disease to their sons, even though they do not show signs of hemophilia.

Some have only mild forms of hemophilia and bleed profusely only after injury or operations. Others, however, may bleed after almost any activity. This type of person can often bleed into his own body joints, resulting in many complications.

Doctors haven't found a cure for hemophilia as yet. Perhaps they will someday. But in the meanwhile, bleeding emergencies today are being handled better now than they were a few years ago.