The order of the Ministry of Health caused alarm in patients with hepatitis C

This order establishes the criteria for providing medical care to patients with hepatitis C. The agency, as Kommersant writes, offered to treat only patients with advanced stages of fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver at the expense of CHI funds. The patient community considers the approach discriminatory. The authors of the appeal warned that as a result, the volume of therapy may be reduced. Now it is received by less than 1% of the estimated number of Russians living with hepatitis C.

The interregional public organization for assistance to patients with viral hepatitis "Together against Hepatitis" addressed a letter to the president with a request to "give instructions to check the legality and legality" of the draft order of the Ministry of Health on the establishment of criteria for providing medical care to patients with hepatitis C in the conditions of a day hospital and inpatient conditions. The document says that children under the age of 18 and adults with severe liver damage (fibrosis above F3 on the METAVIR scale and cirrhosis) can count on treatment under CHI. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova instructed to develop the criteria.

- A significant part of young, able-bodied, highly motivated patients for treatment, including women of childbearing age, whose health is hepatitis C has not yet managed to cause significant harm, in fact, they are cut off from treatment in a day hospital under the state guarantee program," the appeal says.

This order not only "discriminates against the rights" of citizens to free medical care, but also violates the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal law on health protection, runs counter to the initiatives of the President and the government regarding increasing efforts to achieve the goals of eliminating hepatitis C in the country by 2030. In addition, it contradicts the clinical recommendations of the Ministry of Health. For example, paragraph 3.1 of the recommendations states that antiviral treatment is recommended for all patients with chronic viral hepatitis C regardless of the presence of cirrhosis of the liver. The community hopes that the head of state instructed the Ministry of Health to review the criteria for providing medical care.

Recall that by the middle of last year, 624 thousand patients with hepatitis C were registered in the country, but experts believe that the real number of patients is 2 million. The level of the spread of the disease among Russians remains high, this is confirmed by the results of research by the Ministry of Health.

Note that hepatitis C is a dangerous infectious disease affecting the liver. People suffering from this disease are susceptible to other dangerous diseases, they are strictly forbidden to be donors of blood and its components.