Georgia’s progress in hepatitis C elimination in focus of minister’s address to UN general assembly event
Presenting the Georgian model of combating the illness, Azarashvili told the Solidarity for Hepatitis Elimination event his country had a “unique opportunity” to become the first state to end the “two main epidemics of the 21st century” - HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C - by 2025. Photo from Georgian health ministry's website.
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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.
Presenting the Georgian model of combating the illness, Azarashvili told the Solidarity for Hepatitis Elimination event his country had a “unique opportunity” to become the first state to end the “two main epidemics of the 21st century” - HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C - by 2025.
Georgia’s hepatitis C elimination programme differs from expanded access to treatment programmes in other countries, where the treatment is mainly provided to patients who are aware of their hepatitis C virus status. The elimination programme in Georgia is based on active case-finding through various interventions”, Azarashvili noted at the event.
Photo from Georgian health ministry's official website
In comments to the event dedicated to the promotion of solidarity to reach UN and World Health Organisation goals for hepatitis C elimination, the Georgian official stressed the importance of the discovery of the integrated screening and detection of hepatitis C, tuberculosis and HIV infection.
Georgia launched a large-scale hepatitis C elimination programme in 2015, in partnership with the American company Gilead. The latest report by the country’s national centre for disease control said around 45,000 people had undergone medical treatment for the illness in the country, with 98 percent of the cases successfully cured.
The diagnostic tests, which are necessary to enroll in Georgia's Hepatitis C elimination programme, will be available for free. Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze recently said that the diagnostic tests cost about 140–360 GEL.
Residents of seven Georgian regions will be provided with free Hepatitis C, HIV and Tuberculosis tests starting today. Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia said today that the project was first initiated in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and the other six regions were added this year.
The Ministry of Health of Georgia has been awarded a certificate of an exemplary country combating Hepatitis C by the European Association for the Study of the Liver and International Liver Foundation in Austria.
Around 45,000 people have gone through medical treatment for Hepatitis C in Georgia, 98 percent of which were cured, the head of Georgia’s National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) Amiran Gamkrelidze said.
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.
Plans for expanding the list of medicines under the reference price system, ensuring full functioning of a drug quality laboratory and approving a nursing development strategy were among healthcare system plans for 2023 discussed on Wednesday between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili.
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.
Irakli Garibashvili, the Prime Minister of Georgia, on Monday said the Government funding of domestic healthcare programmes had hit ₾7 billion ($2.7 billion) over the past 10 years, in comments marking an anniversary of the State Universal Healthcare Programme.