Dear readers,
While the first clinical studies and clinical outcomes are coming to light in this new disease COVID-19 and still much is unknown about the SARS-Cov-2 virus, we can give you some information and recommendations for patients with chronic liver disease or liver transplanted persons during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
The recommendations are given to us from our partners Swiss Hepatitis and the Swiss Association for the Study of the Liver (SASL) please find it here :
Recommendations from SASL / Hepatitis Switzerland on COVID-19
SHCA Swiss Hepatitis C Association and 11 other patients organizations leave the European umbrella association ELPA
New foundation of an international umbrella association under study
Following an extraordinary members meeting in Ljubljana/Slovenia on 25th November, the Swiss Hepatitis C Association and 11 other national organizations, declared that they will be leaving the European umbrella association ELPA, effective from 31st December 2018. Continue reading “SHCA Swiss Hepatitis C Association and 11 other patients organizations leave the European umbrella association ELPA”
Awarness day for World Hepatitis Day – Zurich 28.7.2017
Following the announcement by the FOPH of the extension of treatment for all HCV patients with Zepatier®, the SHCA canceled its day of protest in Berne. We will now hold an information and awareness day for Hepatitis C in honor of the World Hepatitis Day on 28 July 2017. Our presence is from 12-16 pm near the Pestalozzi park on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich.
Come numerous and support our cause in order to be able to eliminate hepatitis in Switzerland by 2030. We plan a joint evening with grill fun. This place will be communicated later.
Swiss Hepatitis C patients : abandonned by the system
A patient dies because his disease is detected too late. A patient with advanced cirrhosis waited almost a year for treatment. The health insurance companies refuse saving therapies with flimsy or even illegal justifications – the Swiss healthcare system is failing.
Nevertheless, Dr. Koch of the Federal Office of Public Health openly claims in the press and on television that all patients who need treatment get one. The desperate people who contact us again and again, make different experiences.
Ms. Tanja Klein contacted us after the television news program on SFR 1 “10 vor 10” on 24 January. She could not leave unheeded the spread of such lies on the part of the Federal Office of Public Health. Her fate has shaken us. Mr. Klein lost his life in a few months. Diagnosed too late, any help came too late. If a true hepatitis strategy had been implemented, as we have been claiming for years, this sad outcome would have been very likely preventable.
Some health insurance companies do their utmost to avoid having to pay for these life-saving treatments for hepatitis C. A particularly sordid example: A patient has cirrhosis of level F4, and the health insurance company Atupri refuses to pay for the treatment for 10 months. The patient fears for his life, his doctor is fighting windmills. It’s criminal.
While patients are fighting for their lives, they are officially appeased and delayed. The Federal Office responsible does not care about the Health Insurance Act. How many Swiss patients still have to die from hepatitis C, how many still have to suffer and wait for treatment? We demand: This miserable game of cat and mouse on the patient’s back must stop!