Georgia’s Journey to Viral Hepatitis Elimination
Georgia is a small country of less than 4 million people, however it has a large HCV burden. With many families affected by the HCV there has been active community advocacy to demand action. Driven by the commitment of the Georgian Government and civil society and the advent of effective HCV treatment, Georgia was well placed to make significant strides in the elimination of HCV.
Georgia embarked on the world’s first national viral hepatitis elimination program in 2015; at the time, over 7% of adults had evidence of HCV infection, and over 5% were living with HCV, about 150,000 persons.
Through a partnership with Gilead Sciences, treatment was made available for every Georgian with hepatitis C. To date through the national program, more than 1.4 million adults have been screened for the virus and more than 55,000 have been treated or are in treatment.
The Government of Georgia, with strong support from US CDC and other international partners, declared intention to eliminate hepatitis C in Georgia. The national Hepatitis C elimination program became operational in 2015.
The six objectives of the program include:
Search the resources to see key reports and documents from Georgia’s hepatitis elimination programme