Gov’t to launch new Hepatitis B elimination programme
Tengiz Tsertsvadze, the head of the Infectious Diseases and AIDS Centre, said Georgia had the opportunity to overcome Hepatitis B by 2030. Photo: interpressnews.ge
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The Georgian Government will launch a new programme for the elimination of Hepatitis B this year, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, the head of the Infectious Diseases and AIDS Centre, revealed in an interview with the news agency InterPressNews on Tuesday.
Tsertsvadze told IPN the country had the opportunity to overcome Hepatitis B by 2030, in a discussion on the successful efforts in the domestic healthcare system.
In the latter comments, he said Georgia had a “real opportunity to become the first country in the world to overcome the two major epidemics” of the 21st century - Hepatitis C and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - by 2025.
The healthcare professional highlighted Georgia’s Hepatitis C elimination programme as a “unique and successful” experience for the country.
Launched in 2015 in partnership with the American company Gilead, the programme has resulted in the successful treatment rate of about 98 percent throughout Georgia.
The latest report by the country’s National Centre for Disease Control said around 45,000 people had undergone treatment for the illness in the country since the launch of the project.
The World Health Organisation has unveiled its Collaborating Centre on Viral Hepatitis Elimination at Georgia’s National Centre for Disease Control, with the move enabling the country to develop laboratory capacity and share its success in eliminating the disease , the Georgian Health Ministry announced on Tuesday.
Georgia’s progress in eliminating hepatitis C was in focus of health minister Zurab Azarashvili’s address to an event at the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday, the Georgian health ministry said.
The United States will continue to support Georgian health authorities in their goal of achieving elimination of Hepatitis C and B in the country, the US Embassy to Georgia said on Monday.
Those living in Georgia’s occupied regions but do not hold a Georgian passport will be able to benefit from the free Hepatitis C treatment program Georgia offers its citizens.