The National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC) in Georgia has been designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre on Viral Hepatitis Elimination. The NCDC will act as a demonstration platform on the topic for the WHO European Region and share experiences in hepatitis elimination with Member States.
As a collaborating centre, the organization will contribute to developing, revising and monitoring national hepatitis elimination plans, improving viral hepatitis testing strategies and strengthening diagnostic laboratory capacity in the Region.
Working towards a hepatitis-free future
“The opening of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Viral Hepatitis Elimination in Georgia is recognition of the significant success of the national Hepatitis C Elimination Programme and the result of strong support from international partners,” said Zurab Azarashvili, Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia.
“The combined efforts of the government, the medical sector and our partner and supporting organizations, improved testing and universal access to treatment regimens has significantly reduced the disease burden in Georgia,” he noted, adding “I believe that, with the Collaborating Centre, Georgia will make an even greater contribution to the elimination of viral hepatitis in the European Region and to reducing the disease burden globally”.
Dr Nino Berdzuli, Director of the Division of Country Health Programmes at WHO/Europe, expressed her delight at welcoming NCDC to the WHO network of collaborating centres. She said, “Georgia has done much towards eliminating viral hepatitis. From designing health services that are centred around people’s needs, to decentralizing and integrating viral hepatitis services in primary care settings, Georgia has been showing the way forward. This provides an opportunity for other countries to gain practical understanding of how to overcome barriers in implementation and to turn strategy into reality”.
Hepatitis C Elimination Programme
In April 2015, Georgia launched the unprecedented Hepatitis C Elimination Programme, focused on testing and treating people infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). At the time, more than 5% of the adult population were chronically infected with HCV, and two thirds of those infected were unaware of it.
The Hepatitis C Elimination Programme, focused on testing and treating all HCV-infected people with highly effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), has been supported by WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Hepatitis C Elimination Programme has screened more than 2.8 million people, and a majority of people diagnosed with HCV infection were referred to services offering life-saving treatment. Through the programme, more than 80 000 people have received the highly effective DAA treatment, which has a cure rate of over 99%.
About WHO collaborating centres
WHO collaborating centres are institutions designated by the WHO Director-General. Together, they form an international collaborative network carrying out activities to support WHO’s programmes at all levels. Typically, such centres are divisions of national research institutes; departments of universities, laboratories, hospitals or health ministries; or national institutions, such as academies.