World Hepatitis Day Initiatives
The World Hepatitis Alliance supports campaigners and patient organisations around the world to help make a difference to the lives of the millions of people living with viral hepatitis and to prevent new infections. To find out more on what is going on in your country, use the map below to find local organisations, World Hepatitis Day initiatives and other initiatives.
You can also look at our ‘Wall of Stories’ and submit your own personal experience of living with hepatitis or find other community resources including an Online Scrapbook and our latest Newsletters. The This is hepatitis... blog features bloggers from around the world talking about their experiences with hepatitis.
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Country: Georgia
City: Tbilisi
Type: WHD
Georgia - WHD 2011
On the occasion of World Hepatitis Day, the newspaper Georgia Today provided an insight on how hepatitis C is perceived and treated in the country. They also brought attention to the fact that the government only subsidises in-patient treatment and that private insurance companies do not finance patients with hepatitis C at all. Lali Sharvadze, the head of the Dispensary Department at the Infectious Diseases, Aids & Clinical Immunology Research Centre, explained that one of the most critical problems with treating hepatitis C patients is the lack of symptoms, sometimes for decades, making it a quiet disease.
A petition addressing the Georgian government began to be circulated on World Hepatitis Day asking for the recognition of hepatitis C patients as a public responsibility. The petition specifically asked for a hepatitis national strategy, a survey to reveal the accurate incidence of hepatitis C and assurance that the current social insurance programs will make early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment services accessible.
