1% of all people with Hepatitis C will die every year. Treat your Hep C before it’s too late

Dying from Hep C: why you should not delay Hep C treatment

When the subject of doing Hepatitis C treatment comes up people too often delay starting treatment. There are lots of reasons. Some people delay treatment because they are worried about the side effects of Hep C medicines like Harvoni or Epclusa. Often people delay starting Hep C treatment because of money issues. When people are looking at generic Hep C medication they worry if its fake or not.

Despite all of this I am always saying to people,

 “Start your treatment as soon as possible.”

There is a good reason for this.

Every year 1% of all people with Hep C will die from the effects of having Hepatitis C. Usually this is from liver failure but is can also be from other related issues caused by Hep C, kidney failure and liver cancer are both caused by Hep C and both are potentially fatal.

The side effects of having Hep C are much worse than any small side effect from Hep C medication.  Apart from brain fog, fatigue, bleeding, bruising, peripheral neuropathy, and the myriad of other side effects of Hep C, the BIG side effect of Hep C is death… Hep C will kill you!

In other words, if you have Hep C there is a 1% chance that you will die in the next 12 months. Now obviously there are factors that may decrease or increase your chance of dying. For example, if you have liver cirrhosis your chance of dying is higher. If you have a low fibrosis level, then your chances of dying are lower. But the fact is that 1% of everyone who has Hep C will die every year.

Generally, the longer a person has had Hep C the higher their chances are of dying however people who have only had Hep C for a relatively short time can also die from its effects.

Living and Dying with Hep C

I know this only too well because several times every month someone who has ordered Hepatitis C medication through me dies before the medication arrives. That is to say, the patient dies in the two weeks between when the medication was ordered and when it arrives.

In the email below, which I received yesterday, the family ordered medication for their father. I had already organised the shipment of generic Harvoni for this same family for their Uncle and he had already been successfully treated. Their father was waiting to see how the treatment went for his brother before ordering his own Hep C medication.

Once his brother was pronounced cured the family ordered the meds, but they had waited too long.

From: Y
Sent: Tuesday, 14 July 2020 12:32 PM
To: greg jefferys <gregjefferys@outlook.com>
Subject: Re: Re: Hep C medicine

 Hi Greg

Some bad news yesterday, my dad pasted away, and we aren’t going to be needing the medication.

Is there a returning policy or what can we do in this situation?  If you can let me know if there’s any that can be done.

Thanks

Y.

This gentleman, this father, this brother, this husband, died of liver failure about one week before his medication was due to arrive. If he had not waited to see how his brother’s treatment went, he would still be alive today.  Liver failure can happen very suddenly and extremely fast.

Once the liver has cirrhosis, liver failure is a very real prospect and can happen very quickly with death occurring within a few days. There is a “tipping point” that the liver reaches and once that tipping point is passed its all over.

But if the virus is cleared, even in the late stages of liver failure, then the liver can heal and I have seen people come back from almost certain death to being quite healthy again once they started treatment and their liver was rid of the Hepatitis C.

Treatment Denial: Health Insurance and Hep C in the USA

This morning in my Hep C Facebook support group a woman from the USA posted that her Health Insurance had declined her access to Hep C treatment.

She was distressed because she was suffering all the classic symptoms of Hepatitis C such as brain fog, fatigue, easy bruising etc. She knew that there was no way she could afford the cost of brand Hep C meds in the USA and she was not aware that generic Hep C meds existed. The only option she felt she had was to appeal the decision of her Health insurer and if that failed to try to access Hep C treatment through GILEAD’s Compassionate Access Plan, a process that might take many months and still be unsuccessful.

My comment was for her to consider using generic medication to treat her Hep C ASAP.

Now whenever I write something like that I am very aware that some people will say:

“Oh, Greg Jefferys is just trying to drum up more business for himself.”

On the same page of my Facebook Hep C support group, on the same day, another guy who we will call Jim, wrote that he was really suffering badly from the effects of chronic Hepatitis C. He had no health insurance and had no money. He had contacted me about getting generic Hep C medicine but could not even afford the generic prices.

People Before Profits

Now here comes the important part of this post.

I always put people ahead of profits. If Jim had told me he was broke and could not afford the price of the generic Hep C medication I would have removed my profit margin, which would have reduced the price by about 30%.
If Jim could not afford the generic Hep C meds even at that reduced price then we could have talked about some kind of payment plan where he pays, lets say $150, starts treatment and then pays the remaining $200 as he is able.

The important thing is to remember that I will do everything that I possibly can to help people with Hep C get treatment. It may sound corny but seeing people get rid of their Hepatitis C infection is more important to me than making money.

Lack of money should never be a reason for not starting Hepatitis C treatment.

If you need Hepatitis C treatment but do not have enough spare money to even afford to buy the generic Harvoni, or Epclusa or Sovaldi talk to me about it. I will do my absolute best to see that you get treatment and get rid of your Hepatitis C infection.

Do it before it’s too late!

(Many people with Hep C are broke because they are not able to work because of the effects of the Hep C. So often I hear from people who were able to restart their employment once the Hep C was cured.)

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