In about five years from now, Georgia will be a Hepatitis C-free country thanks to a unique treatment program that was introduced today.
Hundreds of thousands of people who are infected with the Hepatitis C virus in Georgia will receive Sofosbuvir, a new medicine for Hepatitis C, for free.
Today Georgia and Gilead, the company that produces Sofosbuvir, signed a memorandum which will see Georgia receive Sofosbuvir from its producer company for free. This will make the virus treatment affordable for everyone.
Until now Hepatitis C treatment was very expensive and many Georgians who suffered from this disease could not afford treatment.
As a result of the new program, the country will be absolutely free of the Hepatitis C virus in about five years, said Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director general of the Infectious Diseases, AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre of Georgia.
Gilead said it chose Georgia as a model program to eliminate Hepatitis C because of four major reasons:
Meanwhile, Georgian authorities called on people living in Georgia’s occupied regions Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) to use this opportunity and get involved in the program that would soon eliminate Hepatitis C in Georgia.