Appeal to the State
Tragic is the situation of patients with hepatitis who in recent years can not get their medicines in Cyprus, as a result of which they resort to Greece and Egypt to do so in order to stay alive.
Speaking to KYPE on the occasion of the 28th of July, which has been established as the World Hepatitis Day, the President of the Association of Liver Patients and Friends of Cyprus 'PROMETHEA', Giannoula Kulla, appeals to the State to take care of the medicine needed for treatment by patients.
"The most important thing for us patients is to be able to take our medication and heal like all other patients. To be well, to be able to go back to our jobs and to be active and productive members in our family and in our society as a whole. Unfortunately this never happened. "Some of us are still waiting to get our medication, some others went to neighboring Egypt or Greece to get their medication and some others unfortunately died," he said.
He noted that the promises made by the people in charge of the supply of medicines have been given for four years without anything drastic being done in this direction, with the result that the patients are left alone in their drama.
As he said, the diagnosed patients with hepatitis in Cyprus are around 500 and so far there are no statistics on the course of the disease.
The goal of the World Hepatitis Day, said Ms. Kulla, is to inform and raise awareness of both the population and those responsible for liver disease (through collective action) as a serious public health problem and to trigger a fundamental change.
According to studies and data from the World Health Organization, 8 out of 10 patients worldwide do not know that they suffer from some type of hepatitis, since its symptoms appear several years later. This is exactly why scientists call it a silent disease.
The hepatitis C virus is a contagious disease and is transmitted through blood or blood products and not through social contact. At the World Health Congress in May 2016, 194 member states of the World Health Organization signed for the first time the "Global Health Strategy for Viral Hepatitis", which commits members to eradicating viral hepatitis by 2030. Cyprus also honored this agreement with its signing.
"Since then, some steps have been taken, such as the creation of a National Action Plan, a National Commission for the Elimination of Hepatitis in Cyprus, as well as other plans and strategies that unfortunately remained closed in state drawers," said Ms. Koulla.
He noted that the Association of Liver Patients and Friends of Cyprus "Prometheus" will continue to contribute at an uninterrupted pace, multiple actions and all the means at its disposal, in the effort to achieve the goal which is the possibility of receiving medication and eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030 .
Source: KYPE
