Hepatitis C which is an infection that affects the liver and causes causes inflammation Often jaundice or yellowing of the body are the only symptoms of the illness. Hepatitis C is however preventable as there is a vaccine available. Hepatitis C can spread through sexual contact and through sharing needles. If a patient shows yellowing of the eyes or the skin, they should immediately be medically treated as Hepatitis C can be chronic and threaten your life. In fact, chronic Hepatitis C is often the cause for cirrhosis of the liver, a condition which demands a liver surgery to treat it.
Hepatitis C treatment is relatively straightforward if it is in the early stages of the disease. Your doctor will look through your tests and prescribe you medication for the illness. However, if the disease keeps returning i.e. if you have recurrent Hepatitis C infections, you might develop cirrhosis of the liver. In case you already have chronic Hepatitis C infection, treatment will be long and expensive and your doctor will try to make sure that cirrhosis does not happen. If cirrhosis has already happened, your doctor will have to treat that and if you are looking at end stage liver damage, liver transplant is your only option. Treatment of Hepatitis C can be expensive irrespective of the stage of the disease. Crowdfunding can help with many of these treatments.
Here are certain ways in which you can raise funds for each of these scenarios.
Early Hepatitis C infection.
- You need a crowdfunding platform of your choice. You do not need to raise a lot of money. You can plan on having a few donors that you can source your funds from.
- Accordingly, you can make your fundraiser and contact all possible donors.
- You do not need a team for a small-scale project.
- You do not need support fundraisers in these campaigns usually.
Infection has progressed but cirrhosis of the liver has not happened.
- You have to make sure you have a good crowdfunding platform.
- Make sure that you can convey the urgency of the situation to all the readers of the fundraiser.
- You may not need a huge donor base but you will need quite a number. Aggressive campaigning on social media is advisable.
- Raise money with a team and if required set up support fundraisers.
If the infection is recurrent and cirrhosis has set in:
- You have to be aware of where you can get financial help for liver transplant patients in India. Cirrhosis can be treated through medicines but the possibility of a transplant is never too far away.
- Cirrhosis of the liver is not a curable condition but a treatable condition. It is often treated through liver transplants which are very expensive and has plenty of added costs. This is why you should raise funds with a team if your patient is at this stage.
- Your campaign is likely to be large. Therefore, be sure to use all media available to you. This includes social media and conventional media.
- If you think your social media reach is not enough, you have to raise money through support fundraisers and your team. If possible, do get in touch with a celebrity to promote your costs. The celebrity person may be a small-time social media celebrity but you are more likely to get more donations.
One thing you need to remember is that medical crowdfunding India has caught on because funding for liver transplants in India is limited. This is why it is important to maintain a healthy culture of raising money. Remember to update all your contributors therefore about the state of your patient regularly.
