September is Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) Awareness Month and BCDI is honored to be a respected voice in this community. But what is ITP?

ITP is a rare bleeding disorders characterized by a low amount of platelets in the blood. Platelets are needed for clotting of the blood. In patients with ITP, a person’s immune system creates antibodies that mark healthy platelets as “foreign substances” and then mistakenly attack and destroy them. As an autoimmune disease that results in the destruction of platelets, patients with ITP tend to bleed or bruise. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are over 200,000 people affected by ITP.

The BCDI staff and Dr. Michael Tarantino founded the first-ever ITP comprehensive care clinic in the United States in 2017. This is a multi-disciplinary approach, as we take care of the whole person; not just a platelet count or bleeding symptom, but everything that impacts their quality of life. Patients receive expert evaluation from BCDI’s full team of ITP specialists, including a hematologist, advanced practice providers, physical therapist, dietitian, dentist, immunologist and more! BCDI’s ITP comprehensive care clinics have served over 20 patients since 2017, and has proven to be the blueprint for similar ITP care models around the world.

For more information on the signs and symptoms, the diagnosis process, different forms, treatment and much more on ITP, please visit our ITP homepage found here. We hope you will join BCDI this September in our mission to raise awareness and empower ITP patients, as we will be sharing valuable information about ITP. Be sure to follow our BCDI Facebook page throughout September, where will will host weekly ITP-themed trivia questions with BCDI giveaways, shed crucial information about ITP and help raise awareness for the ITP community.

We also invite you to participate with the Platelet Disorder Support Association and their mission, as PDSA helped lead the charge to get National ITP Awareness Month officially recognized in 2010. On social media, use the ITP Awareness Month hashtags to help connect the ITP community: #PaintTheTownPurple, #ITPawareness, #PDSA. You can learn more about PDSA’s involvement with ITP Awareness Month by visiting their website, www.pdsa.org.