"When this newspaper first talked to 47-year-old Xabier Etxeberria in June, he was fighting to get the Basque public health system, Osakidetza, to give him the treatment most likely to cure his hepatitis C. A month earlier, he had filed a written request for the triple therapy, claiming it was being denied to him for "economic reasons." When Osakidetza replied, it basically agreed with him: because his liver still had a Grade 2 fibrosis, the treatment could not be administered since the policy is to reserve this triple medication for more advanced cases, with Grade 4 being the equivalent of cirrhosis. Etxeberria, a father of three who works as a monitor for people with psychiatric conditions, informed EL PAÍS last week that he is finally on the triple therapy, following a treatment that lasts between six and 12 months and costs 30,000 euros. This treatment increases recovery rates by between 45 and 75 percent."
Houssnia el Khadiri with her children Fouad and Fadwa at home in Quijorna, Madrid. / ULY MARTÍN (EL PAÍS)
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