Health Ministry launches new campaign to reveal and help people with Hepatitis C

Georgia’s Health Ministry has launched a new campaign titled Cure Yourself in order to encourage the people to be tested for Hepatitis C, as the disease has no symptoms until too late. 

Through the campaign #განიკურნე  the Ministry appeals to people to  apply screening in order to understand whether they have the illness or not, as the treatment of Hepatitis C is free of charge in Georgia. 

 In the Hepatitis C Elimination Program, which started in Georgia under the current state leadership in 2015, 41,000 people have been registered, out of which 40,000 have received relevant treatment which costs thousands of dollars in other countries. 

The Ministry announces that 30,000 patients have already completed the treatment and the cure rate is 98percent. 

• Through the partnership with the American company Gilead, Georgia launched a large-scale Hepatitis C Elimination Program in 2015. The program aims to make Georgia a Hepatitis C-free country by 2020.

Gilead now provides Georgia with a medicine Harvoni free of charge. 

• Typically Harvoni costs $110,000  as a minimum per person for one course of treatment.

Georgia had one of the highest estimated virus prevalence rates in the world, affecting 6.7 percent of the population.