Elimination of Hepatitis C still a priority for Georgia
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US Ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly said his country will continue supporting Georgia with its Hepatitis C elimination program.
Ambassador Kelly attended a meeting today with Georgian and foreign medical experts during which the Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs Davit Sergeenko summarised the two-year Hepatitis C elimination program.
More than 30,000 people suffering from Hepatitis C are registered in the program. Around 7,500 people have received free treatment and have been cured in Georgia since launching the program back in 2015.
The Ministry recommends all citizens to get tested for Hepatitis C, and if their results appear positive to sign up for the free treatment program.
Signing a memorandum with Gilead, the company that produces Sofosbuvir and Harvoni, medicines for Hepatitis C, Georgia has made the virus treatment free for all citizens under the program.
Typically the treatment costs €110,000 per person, which is unaffordable for the majority of Georgians. This is why the Ministry believes the Hepatitis C elimination program is revolutionary.
Last year the Government of Georgia approved $50 million 2016-2020 National Strategy on Elimination of Hepatitis C, which meant in four years' time 90 percent of patients infected with the disease will be screened and 95 percent of those afflicted will receive treatment.
The Government of Georgia claims Hepatitis C will be virtually eliminated by 2020 thanks to the revolutionary treatment program that is treating and curing infected people in Georgia.
Twenty thousand people suffering from Hepatitis C in Georgia will receive free treatment this year and potentially enjoy 100 percent recovery thanks to an offer from American pharmaceutical firm Gilead to provide a new medicine to Georgia for free.
Georgia’s Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs Davit Sergeenko says the treatment of Hepatitis C will continue in Georgia until the virus has been eliminated from the country and all sufferers are cured.
Georgia is joining World Hepatitis Day by encouraging its citizens to immediately get tested for Hepatitis C.
A new modern centre for Hepatitis C management has opened in the town of Zugdidi in Georgia’s western Samegrelo region today.
Georgia’s Health Ministry has launched a new campaigned titled Cure Yourself in order to encourage the people to be tested on Hepatitis C, as the disease has no symptoms until too late.
Georgia’s Minister of Health David Sergeenko is meeting with politicians and health experts in the United States. He held a meeting with Senator Richard Lugar and discussed Georgia-US cooperation in the field of healthcare.
Emergency assistance and Hepatitis C screening will now be available on the central boulevard of the Georgian Black Sea resort town of Batumi.
Around 45,000 people have gone through medical treatment for Hepatitis C in Georgia, 98 percent of which were cured, the head of Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said.
The programme to eliminate Hepatitis C is expanding in Georgia. In addition to medical institutions, screening will now also available at Public Service Halls.
With the help of the United States, Georgia will bring in new medicine which is likely to completely defeat Hepatitis C in Georgia by 2020.