Hepatitis C in Poland...please help.

As if things were not bad enough I have just found out I have hepatitis C. I am an American here on a one year non work allowed karta pobytu....

The treatment in the US is extremely expensive and I cannot pay it. Does anyone know of any free or cheap options here in Warsaw? I do not have insurance...

Thanks

Hmmm sounds like someone has been spending too much time in warszawa's brothels...

Just walk into a public health clinic. Or if you want to pay a little more for faster/better service go to a private clinic.

Not even funny...I got it likely from a doctors office abroad...it rarely comes from sex and I didn't visit a brothel. It costs a LOT of money to treat so its why I am looking for free or cheap options for people with financial problems.

it's not gonna happen...
you need to go to the nearest clinic (hospital)...

I used to have hepatitus c you dont get it from sex you get from blood transfusion needles or if someone bleeds and you use a razor i got it from blood transfusion thank god its gone. good luck I know how you feel poland has universal health care go to a good hospital there.

Poland has universal care for citizens,,,,I am a yank on a non work allowed/no insruance karta pobytu. I need to find the cheapest option as it is a very expensive treatment process

Does Poland have mandatory reporting to the government with Hepatitis like in some countries? Is my name on a list somewhere now?

v99

before you dive in for a bi-opsy and go worry yourself half dead about paying for interferon know this.
1. It clears up naturally in many cases (I do not have the stats but it's considerable.
2. Some people live with it for decades and never even know they have it until a routine test shows up the antibodies.
3. Interferon has had hit and miss results in the past but research into genotypes is shedding some light on the reasons for this and the potential success/failure of treatment.

So maybe you have time to finish your time in Europe before you seek ttreatment as an absolute prority.

Good luck, mate.
Not that you'll need it.

I got it when a junkie stabbed me in the neck with a dirty needle.

anyway, the doctors at the hospital where I go to at the liver clinic said I can eat whatever I want and even take drugs, as long as I do not drink alcohol and my health will be the same in 10 years.

The worst thing you can do when you have hep c is drink alcohol, because alcohgol is like poison for your liver anyway.

the hospitals in Poland will definately not treat you for free, even in western europe they wouldnt do it for free. Because this is not life threatening in the short-term, and really you have 25% chance that your immune system will fight it off by itself. also you can just wait until your situation improves and then pay for treatment, but I suggest waiting at least 5 years when they think of some better treatment then Interferon whcih is painful , **** apparently like chemotherapy(thats the closest thing you can compare this treatment to) and the treatment lasts for 6 months.

There is plenty of people with this, and they have it for 15 or 20 years and they don't even bother treating it, really just don't drink any alcohol, drink alot of water and exercise......... thats what the medical websites say.

Wasn't there a breakout of hepatitis C in Nevada involving six clinics just recently?

Yes. I seem to remember something to do with private blood donation clinics in Nevada.

As for using drugs and eating anything you want..... remember that the liver filters poison out of everything we ingest. Some drugs can do as much damage as alcohol and eating loads of high fat food is potentially damaging.

Have you checked with the Szpital Chorób Zakaźnych near the Wola PDT (dept store)?

I would suggest going to cdc.gov or the European version which I believe goes by ECDC and really gathering solid scientific data about Hepatitis C. One should under professional help with this. There is a risk that this condition may go onto even more serious illness. It should not be taken lightly. Yes, I can understand concern about paying for treatment, but not having treatment is very, very serious.

Does anyone know about anonymous HIV testing as well? I am of course worried about everything now because I have no idea what else this clinic infected me with.

I do not want to be kicked out of Poland or not get my visa renewed because I might have HIV as well....I would like to find an anonymous testing service like in the US.

hep C survives far longer and in far more conditions than HIV.
If Hep c and HIV were animals hep would be a cockroach (virtually indestructible) and HIV would be a moth (ugly but fragile).

In Western Europe you'll have similar rights to USA (if not in Poland?) so maybe a journey into Germany for testing will help rest your fears.

Yeah I want to find out if there is an anonymous testing option in Poland...as I know it here you even have to make an appointment to get the answer from a doctor (did it here a while ago for a visa) so there is no anonymity available that route since I had to show a valid document to receive them.

Listen buddy, you have to get yourself to a hospital. Quit wasting time on a message board! You're in a country where the health care system is much cheaper than your native usa. If you want to get even cheaper medical help i suggest you go to ukraine. Your last worry should be about being on some "list." It's idiots like you that help spread these diseases.

I'd put ignorance at the top of the list for helping the spread of these blood to blood infections.
it's usually the type of misinformed jackass who thinks you catch hep c from a brothel that cause the most problems.
Know what I mean, polishwoodchuck?

Please seek medical help as you may infect somebody else, could I suggest you get in contact with somebody from the gay movement who may be able to help. This is a homo sexual diseases and people from that organisation are in the best position to give you the best advice. You may also want to call the ambulance as they would be required to take you to nearest hospital who then could not refuse you treatment..worth a try?

yeah, and i heard that if you get on the same bus as a homogay person you can catch aids but you can protect yourself if you cross your fingers so that might be worth a try?

LMAO good one

It shows how much people know about the disease by reading there comments.

Hep C from brothels....HIV = homosexuals.

Please tell me its a joke I'm just not understanding.
This level of ignorance as we approach the 2nd decade of the third millenium is unbelievable!

Read some books. Watch some documentaries. Do what you must but EDUCATE yourselves just enough to avoid being percieved as developmentally disabled (retarded is the politically incorrect term I feel you'll understand best).

Actually, in a very perverse way that developmentally disabled person might be right on target in that a gay organization probably knows who/where does the anonymous HIV testing.

Sad, but true.

Yeah. Advice from a sexual health organisation (Gay or otherwise) is certainly a good idea. I doubt the ambulance and quarantine scenario, he seems to feel is necessary, takes place outside of North Korea, Burma or Mughabe's Zimbabwe.

aids.gov.pl/index.php?page=testy

Thanks to all who helped...and to the others....I am not spreading anything to anyone. I live alone and do not go around injecting people with my blood. People like you are why I am so afraid for anyone to know about this. It is not like some Plague that spreads by air and kills everyone you touch. It has to be a blood exchange...I am convinced I got it in a clinic during medical treatment for another problem that did not change needles or something..its the only exposure I had. I am not gay.....and do not do IV drugs or anything else that could exchange it....but that is irrelevant and that kind of stupidity is why I am nervous.

Do some reading idiots...they dont even tell married couples to worry about spreading HepC during Sex...only to watch out for sharing things with blood like a razor and even then they have no documented cases they are just being careful. Its by blood infusion/injection...

So many people are so nasty and cruel that I am afraid for anyone to know and label me for life unfairly. I do not think I have HIV but if they injected me with this who knows what else I may have now. Blame ****** doctors not me.

Relax people, i realize hep c is most commonly transfered via blood-blood contact. I don't live in Poland; they do teach us sex/health ed. here in canada! I was just being a jerk/instigator/joker - like many of you are in other threads!

I just don't understand why this guy doesn't get help. He says he has no money for treatment in the USA so why not get treated in poland (where he currently resides) where medicare is cheap/government subsidized??? If this is still expensive, go east to the ukraine (visa?) like i said. I would also suggest south asia but that's probably where a quack infected you and airfare would be too expensive.

It's really quite simple.

Yeah you don't understand, there is nothing simple about my situation, so thanks for your advice.

I asked for specific info and you feel the need to judge me and make a joke? About something like this? I hope it made you feel good.

Can you really not get free treatment in USA?
It's obscene for the richest country on earth to leave it's citizens high and dry like that!
On E.R. they used to treat bagladies, hobo's and illegals. Is that pure invention for a feel good TV show?

Sounds like you don't have US health insurance, or a spouse who is paying Polish taxes here and therefore do not have the right to use the Polish medical system.

We are here on an expat assignment, my husband has a work visa, he pays Polish taxes, has a Pesel--but neither our son nor I (I am here on a non work Visa) can use the national health system here. We have US insurance for use at home and a discount card to scanMed and ProMedis here. Anything else, we have to pay up front and hope we get reimbursed for later.

Go to the US embassy in Warsaw, or go see one of the vice-consuls at the consular office in Krakow. Explain your situation and see if you can get assistance from them. They may be able to advise where you can get low-cost treatment here, but they will not pay for it. They might, in extreme circumstances, advance the money to you to get back to the states, but you will be required to repay that money when you get home.

If you are a US citizen, you can get emergency medical care in the US at most large, inner-city hospitals for free (make sure it is a county or so-called inner city hospital), or talk to the bursar or hospital ombudsmen beforehand, regarding your inability to pay.

One time, awhile ago, I was a fulltime employee in the states (I am a citizen and was born there) but our insurance coverage at my new job didn't start until month 6 of employment. I got kidney stones in month 2 and had to be admitted to a hospital thru the ER. I ended up needing surgery.

Because I worked, I didn't qualify for free medical care, so the bursar let me talk to the hospital ombudsman, and that person put me on a payment plan to pay off a reduced debt--approx 40% of what I owed (more than $7,000)---without ruining my credit rating. I paid a small amount each month till that 40% of the total debt was paid.

Hep C is known to be everywhere in Poland and Americans are advised against seeking medical treatment here, and are strongly cautioned never to have even minory surgery done here, or to accept a blood transfusion, unless you must do so to save your life in an emergency.

Those cautions are legitimate, and are due to the very high rates of Hep C (almost 90% of cases in Europe are not diagnosed until severe, life threatening symptoms are experienced--meaning the person has passed it on to quite a few people before they or we know about it), and also due to untreated and undiagnosed TB, pnemococcus, meningitis, MRSA, etc, being spread like crazy over here.

Most people get it here during blood drawing for testing; or in hospitals, due to poor sterilization procedures on the part of doctors and staff. They also, of course, do get it thru transfusions, surgery, and even natural childbirth.

I believe WHO has said only about 10% in this country get it from sex/shared needles.

I am not sure how much this has helped you. I am sorry for your medical situation. I am flying home to the States in June for minor surgery myself, and will look into this then for you, but again I am not sure that will help you.

All Europe?
or certain area's?