Georgia’s success on World Hepatitis Day:
Unique treatment program cures 92% of patients

Today the world is marking World Hepatitis Day and in Georgia the health sector is sharing positive results of its fight against the disease.

Thousands of people who once lived with Hepatitis C are now cured of the disease thanks to the revolutionary Hepatitis C Elimination Program in Georgia.

The World Health Organisation endorsed July 28 as World Hepatitis Day and we Georgians have to be proud that an unprecedented program is being implemented in Georgia,” said Georgia’s Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili.

The Georgian high official was speaking about the unique Hepatitis C Elimination Program, which launched in Georgia in April 2015 that aimed to eliminate the disease and make Georgia a Hepatitis C-free country.

In the first 15 months of the program the results have been extremely positive, with thousands of people now cured of the infectious disease.

The PM posted about success of Georgia's Hepatitis C elimination program on his official Twitter account:

Proud of #Georgia's success in implementing unprecedented #HepatitisC elimination program #WorldHepatitisDayhttps://t.co/sfXIt6WaYt

— Giorgi Kvirikashvili (@KvirikashviliGi) July 28, 2016

Following on from its initial success the program has recently expanded to benefit more people and rid them of the disease, he said.

Figures showed more than 14,000 people have engaged in the program since it launched last April, and more than 5,000 individuals had finished their treatment.

Thanks to the treatment program, 92 percent of beneficiaries or 4,600 patients have been cured of Hepatitis C, announced Georgia’s Minister of Healthcare Davit Sergeenko.

Three months ago we switched to the new generation medicine, removed all eligibility criteria including those related to the gravity of disease, those in risk groups, etc, thus sufficiently increasing the inflow of patients into the program,” he said.

If before we registered 800 patients per month now we reach out to around 3,000 patients. I believe this will be a great relief for the 150,000 infected people in Georgia,” Sergeenko said.