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Georgia

12 Sep 2016
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On average, 500 patients are enrolled on treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Georgia each year

Situated at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, Georgia, a country of just 3.75 million people, became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

map_georgia_2015.jpg
Foreign investment and economic reform have driven growth. Agriculture, including wine-making, is a key sector and joining the EU and NATO are among the country's top foreign policy goals.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) first worked in Georgia in 1993. Our work there has provided a response to armed conflict, endemic/epidemic disease and healthcare exclusion.

[[Country-Facts]]

MSF’s work in Georgia: 2015

On average, 500 patients are enrolled on treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Georgia each year. Approximately 10 percent have the extensively resistant form of the disease.

TB care

Georgia has one of the highest rates of MDR-TB in the world. As part of the UNITAID-funded endTB partnership, MSF has been supporting the Ministry of Health since 2014 with the introduction of the two new TB drugs developed in recent years – bedaquiline and delamanid.[[Article-CTA]]

Between July 2014 and December 2015, 146 patients were put on bedaquiline and 11 on delamanid. At the end of 2015, MSF was leading the preparations for a clinical trial in Georgia, aimed at identifying new, shorter and less toxic regimens for patients with MDR-TB, based on these two drugs.

Abkhazia

MSF continued to support the Abkhazia national TB programme, with the transportation of sputum samples from Gulripsh (Sokhum) TB hospital to Tbilisi referral TB laboratory. Results are sent back to the hospital on a weekly basis.

In 2015, a total of 523 samples were processed. Despite handing over activities in 2014, MSF still financially supports AMRA, a local NGO that works with elderly and vulnerable people and provides support to MDR-TB patients to help them adhere better to their treatment.

139
patients under treatment for MDR-TB in 2015
27
msf staff in 2015
4.6 million AED
expenditure in 2015