Georgia is stepping up its fight against the infectious disease hepatitis C with new medicine soon to enter the local market.
"Georgia will become one of the first countries in the world where the problem of hepatitis C will be solved and this terrible disease will be overcome,” Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said today.
The Georgian leader met with the country’s Health Minister David Sergeenko today and discussed the latter’s recent trip to the United States (US), where he negotiated with the American authorities about introducing Sofosbuvir, a new hepatitis C treatment to Georgia.
Sergeenko said an agreement was reached to import the medicine from the US to Georgia from next year.
"An unprecedented program will start in Georgia through which hepatitis C will be almost completely eradicated,” PM Garibashvili said after the meeting.
"This is a great achievement for our Government and for Mr. David Sergeenko. The main motivation that triggered the American side’s decision was reforms carried out by our Government,” he said.
"These [reforms] include the universal insurance program and the hepatitis C treatment program, through which we treated thousands of patients including 1,000 prisoners. This is a real reform which was achieved in two years and millions of money was spent on it,” he noted.