There is very little data about Hep C infection rates in Hungary however it is likely to be over 1% of the population because Hungary is geographically in the centre of Europes Hep C “Hotspot”

Hepatitis C Treatment in Hungary

One of the amazing things about the work that I do in today’s world is that, via the internet, I hear from people from every country on Earth who are seeking a treatment for Hepatitis C.

Like the internet, Hepatitis C is everywhere.

Unlike the internet, only a privileged few have access to affordable treatment.

Whilst a poor farmer in the Philippines or Nigeria or Hungary can access the internet they can not access Hepatitis C treatment.

In most countries around the world, even the poorest people can access the internet for a few dollars a month, a fraction of their monthly wages. However, access to even the cheapest Hep C treatment will cost the total of many months wages for the poor folk.

Every day I get emails from poor people from every country, from the USA, from Africa, from Europe who can not even afford generic Hepatitis C treatment.

A fortunate few have relatives living in wealthy countries who can find the money to pay for their treatment.

Below is a story of a daughter who saved her Hungarian stepmother who was dying from Hep C.

Like many Eastern European countries, Hungary theoretically has a free health care service however access to expensive treatments such as the new Hepatitis C treatments is extremely limited in Hungary. A person needs to be admitted to a hospital to receive Hep C treatment in Hungary but to be admitted to a hospital there is a long waiting list and only the sickest will be admitted and even then it is likely that they will be treated with Interferon rather than DAAs.

Yet Hungarian doctors do not make their patients aware that good quality generic Hepatitis C treatments are available nor does the Hungarian health system allow people to access generic Hepatitis C treatment.  I do occasionally send generic Hep C medication to Hungary but not often because there is a general lack of awareness of  the availability of these affordable Hep C treatment.

So the story below is a happy one, with a happy ending but it is an exception, most Hungarians with Hepatitis C will not get treatment.

I have shortened the email conversation thread to make it easier to read. Obviously there were quite a few emails back and forth before the treatment began.

A Cry For Help

Dear Greg Jefferys!!

I am writing on behalf of my father’s wife Edith from Hungary, because my English is ok.

We are so glad to read on your website: there seems great hope about the possibility of curing Edith’s Hep C infection, genotype 1, subtype 1b !

Edith is born in 1958. She probably got the infection with Hep C at the age of 22, when she got blood products (blood bags) in a tubal pregnancy operation in a hospital in Hungary.

So she might carry the virus 38 years.

I am sending attached a medical report from 2010, made in Germany.

In 2014 my father had heard about new medications which would be unaffordable.

Then he heard about the Indian Generics, and recently told me it could be a possibility to travel to India and try to get them. I started researching and directly found your website!!!

Could it really be so easy-with your help- to get the medication by mail?

It would be absolutely fantastic!!!

Edith and my father are farmers, working in nature most of their day and both suffer from borreliosis.

Both are working a lot, so who can tell whether her suffering heavy fatigue is really due to the Hep C infection…?

Over the years her stomach grew to an extent which doesn’t seem normal since she is eating very healthy and also quite little portions in my opinion.

She several times (over the years/private doctor) went to ultrasound examination and nothing was found.

She is a very brave person, not complaining. But if there is a chance of cure: the sooner the better!

I think there was no (recent) test made about the condition of her liver.

But does it matter in regards to the medication options?

Is it correct, that

Sofosbuvir+ Daclatasvir or Harvoni would be the recommended treatment for her?

Would you go for the 12 months treatment or longer, since she is infected for so long?

What is the difference between „Sofosbuvir 400 mg + Daclatasvir 60 mg“ and „licensed generic Sofosbuvir 400 mg plus licensed generic Daclatasvir 60 mg“ (except for the price)?

Of course we would try to get the best medication option for her genotype 1b.

Have you already sent Generics to Hungary?

An address in Austria would also be possible, and maybe in Czech Republic but that would be much more difficult for them…

I am Lotte Rudhart (Edith’s husband’s daughter), writing this from Germany, Bremen. I want to say:

It is fantastic how you help people all over the world!!!

THANK YOU & GREAT RESPECT!!!

God bless you!!!!!!!!!

We hope to hear from you soon!

Lotte, in behalf of Edith L

Hi Lotte

Thanks for writing to me and for explaining the situation in detail.

For the treatment of Hep C genotype 1b either Harvoni (sofosbuvir 400 mg + Ledipasvir 90 mg) or Sofosbuvir 400 mg + Daclatasvir 60 mg will give an effective cure. They are equal in cure rates.

From the description of Edit’s condition its sounds like she has ASCITES, which is a build up of fluid in the abdomen.

This probably also indicates cirrhosis, which would explain the fatigue.

Whilst Harvoni and Sof + Dac will give the same cure rate over 12 weeks, because Edit seems quite ill I would suggest that 16 weeks with Sof + Dac would be the best option. This is cheaper than 12 weeks of Harvoni.

The cost for this would be 650 euros, including delivery.

There is no problem sending the medication to Hungary as we would send from within the EU.

The difference between Harvoni and Sof + Dac is that Ledipasvir is more difficult for the body to absorb than Daclatasvir. For treating G1b there is no real difference.

Please write if you have any other questions

Best wishes

Greg

(After numerous emails, about 2 weeks after the first email I arranged for the medication to be sent to Edith in Hungary. She started 16 weeks treatment)

 Six Months Later… Edith husband wrote to me with an update

Hello Greg,

My name is Michael, I’m Edith’s husband, we’re living in Hungary and you may remember that thanks to your work she got hep-c medication, a few months ago.

Yesterday Edith took the last pair of pills, after 16 weeks since beginning the treatment.

God bless you for your work !

I really don’t know how to thank you for all, but if you would like to do a trip to Europe we would be happy to invite you to stay in Edith’s family’s summerhouse beside lake Balaton, though it’s quite simple people therefore used to enjoy it. My daughter Lotte who did the conversation with you, used to stay there for some weeks in summertime.

The situation here doesn’t allow us to get a hep-c test at this moment.

As I understood the things, it would be most important to do a lookup for remaining virus after 12 weeks, i.e. after the 6th of january next year.

We’ll try to do this then in Germany.

Ediths situation is far from ordinary: beside hep-c she suffers (like me and a lot of people in rural Hungary) from lyme desease, on top of that in 2009 she broke her spinal column, thanks to operations done in Munich, Germany (the accident occured there) she wears vertebra of titan and a metallic construction around the place, which – we don’t know why

– nowadays causes her a lot of pain.

Therefore we’re happy to live in a wonderful place in the country, growing – at small amount – fruits, vegetables and cereals, from which we bake different breads and cakes for the weekly market on sundays in Káptalantóti (you can find this market on youtube).

We gave your contact address to a friend of Edith’s, Elisabeth Darázs, she works as a natural healer and as she told us that she knows people suffering from hep-c. Maybe she will contact you these days. Her husband is an english teacher, so there shouldn’t be any language problem.

Sorry for my bad english, I never have been to Great Britain or USA – different to my daugther, she lived in USA for one year – my preferences always were spanish spoken countries.

Enclosed you will find the hungarian translation from your “Tips for taking Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir”.

Because of the fact that in hungarian language there are some unique letters, I choosed to send it in ‘rtf’-format, yesterday we tested it with Lotte, she got it correctly. I also send it to you as plain text file (we don’t have windows, we use some free linux), there you can do changes as you like …

I shortened the chapter which treats papayas and grapefruits, because in Hungary people don’t eat these fruits regularly. I added – as you told us – that CBD-oil can be taken beside the treatment.

So, Dear Greg,

we wish you a very nice day, we’re going to bed right now.

Hope to hear from you some day.

– Peace around the world ! –

*michi with Edith by my side

To access treatment for Hepatitis C in Hungary one must first be admitted to a hospital. If one is not sick enough to be admitted then there is almost no chance of getting Hepatitis C treatment in Hungary

• Tippek a Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir bevételéhez

Itt van egy pár tipp azoknak, akik a Heptitis C-t 400mg-os Sofosbuvirrel + 60 mg-os Daclatasvirrel kezelik.

Mindkét gyógyszer (Sofosbuvir és Daclatasvir) vízben oldodó és a gyomron keresztül kerülnek a vérkeringésbe.

A Sofosbuvir és a Daclatasvir tablettát naponta ugyanabban az időben egyszerre kell bevenni.

A tablettákat kevés étellel és nem túl sok folyadékkal kell bevenni. Íly módon marad a gyógyszer a legtovább a gyomorban, biztosítva a hatóanyag teljes felszívódását.

Mivel a Sofosbuvir egyeseknél álmatlanságot okozhat, javasolt a tablettákat a reggelivel bevenni.

Amig ezeket a tablettákat szedjük, csak visszafogott mértékben kávézzunk és teázzunk. Ennek az az oka, hogy azok az enzimek (név szerint CYP enzimek), amik a vérből a koffeint kivonják, ugyanabba az enzimcsaládba tartoznak, mint a Sofosbuvir-t és Daclatasvir-t a vérből kivonó enzimek. Egy magas koffein szint egy aluladagolt hatóanyagszinthez vezethet. De egy-két csésze kávé vagy tea naponta nem okoz problémát.

• Energia italok

Az energia italok (energy drinks) mint pl. Red Bull sok koffeint és más – Taurine nevű – stimulánst tartalmaznak. A taurinok is a CYP-enzimeket dolgoztatják, ezért az enegia italok elkerülendők. Hasonló a helyzet egyes gyógyszerekkel, és növényi kiegészítőkkel, különösen az orbáncfűvel. Inkább kerüljünk minden növényi kiegészítőt a terápia ideje alatt. (CBD olaj szabad).

• Étel és Hepatitis C kezelés

A mindennapi ételek nem okoznak problémát a két gyógyszerrel.

Az a hír járja, hogy a grapefuit, a papaya és hasonlók elekerülendők.

Ez nem egészen stimmel.

A hír alapja az, hogy bizonyos gyümölcsök lelassítják a CYP enzímek termelődését (ezek azok az enzimek, amik lebontják a Sofosbuvir-t és a Daclatasvir-t). Ez azt jelenti, hogy amikor ezeket a gyümölcsöket esszük a terápia alatt, a gyógyszer hatóanyaga egy kissé hosszabban marad a vérünkben, ami valószinüleg nem is baj.

… Ahhoz, hogy ez problémát okozzon, nagyon sok grapefruitot vagy papayát kellene enni.

• Hepatitis kezelés és más gyógyszerek

Ha más gyógyszert is szedsz, az orvosoddal kell megbeszélned, van-e összeférhetetlenség. Ha magad akarod ezt kideríteni, akkor nézd meg ezt a weboldalt: Liverpool HEP Interactions (hep-druginteractions.org/checker)

Hepatitis C Hungary

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