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I have a very high platelet count - it's 800. I've had three episodes of deep vein thrombosis and they put me onto a tablet called Platel.

But now because the platelet count won't come down, they want to put me onto hydroxyurea tablets. I am being treated by a haematologist at the Johannesburg General Hospital.
Is this medication available there?

Professor Harry Seftel replies:

This is a very rare condition. In the circulating blood there are tiny little bodies called platelets, which are important to help with blood clotting. For some reason that we don't understand, your bone marrow is producing too many platelets.

There are ways of tackling this by giving chemical agents in order to suppress the excessive formation of platelets. In fact there is a new medicine which has proved to be effective indeed.

What you need to do is go back to your haematologist and discuss exactly what these medical options are. One is the hydroxyurea which you mentioned, but there is a more recent preparation on the market which I'm sure your haematologist will know about.

Whether it's available at the public hospitals, I'm not sure. It is a new medicine and it is fairly expensive, which can be a problem in the public hospitals. But certainly your haematologist will know about the existence of this medicine.