Italy and hepatitis C

The issue of healthcare in Italy is very delicate. He knows this well, not only those who simply turn to public hospitals for normal visits or specific examinations - so sometimes they have to wait even more than a year - but also and above all those who have to deal with particular pathologies, as in the case of people with hepatitis C. What should someone who can't afford to buy the medicine do for treatment? Going to India or - as an article in Libero Quotidiano also explains - even in Egypt, facing travel expenses, air travel would have never done so much more in the name of health and life.

Can hepatitis C be defeated in India?

Recently, the journey of a group of men and women suffering from hepatitis C, who, failing to pay or not paying for treatment in Italy, turned to structures all over the world, has risen to the headlines. 'foreign, specifically to Indian ones.

What drives them to cure themselves in India, as explained by the Indian hepatologist in the video in question, concerns the fact that, since the type of hepatitis affecting these people is not so serious, the Italian health service probably does not bear the costs of the therapy, paying only for the most serious cases. In India the drug is in fact much less expensive . So, once the recipes are visited and received, people go to buy the drug at the pharmacy, all in a completely legal way.

Drug-organized trips

A touching journey these five days in India of the "Ragazzi della C", which moved and greeted each other, promising to keep in touch to learn about their respective health evolutions and hope for recovery.

Everyone in Delhi to buy medicine in Indian pharmacies, then, to defeat this treacherous bomb?

As envoy Michele Bocci of Repubblica writes in his story "Hepatitis C, in India with tourists from the super-drug", holiday groups are being born to go and buy the drug, a generic product sold in Italy. Each person has his own story, each a great hope to start the treatment and to see the negative sign written in the next exams.

Result? Between teeth, breasts redone and now also hepatitis C, travel agencies probably gain and the Italian health institution loses more and more credibility.

How to infect hepatitis C

Hepatitis C is an inflammation, specifically of the liver, caused by chemicals, medicines, too much alcohol or viruses. It is contagious through contact with blood, even between particles not visible to the naked eye.

Therefore people who use drugs intravenously and who exchange syringes, health workers who are accidentally injured are at risk; even non-sterilization of materials (at dentists or in all cases where the skin is perforated, even with piercings or tattoos ) or transfusions can be a vehicle of contagion.

And acupuncture? Here too it is important to pay attention to those who practice it and check disposable needles and sterilization practices.