Amiran Gamkrelidze, former head of the National Center for Disease Control declares, that 75% of healthcare funding comes from the US. According to him, the budget they allocated until 2017 alone exceeded USD 700 million. It is worth noting that this amount does not include the Hepatitis C Elimination Program, which has been implemented since 2015 with the funding of the US Centers for Disease Control and the drug manufacturer Gilead.
Gamkrelidze believes that without close cooperation with the US, the healthcare system will find it diffucult to develop in the future.
"I cannot list all the projects, of course, but the most important was the creation of the Lugar Center, which is one of the largest investments from the American side.
There are 22 laboratories in total, of which 10 are under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 12 are under the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture. These laboratories play a special role in the timely detection and prevention of infectious diseases, including especially dangerous infections, zoonotic diseases. The investment in this system from 2003 to 2022 was USD 350 million", - said Amiran Gamkrelidze.
According to him, Georgia would not have been able to purchase the medicine "Sofosbuvir" without US assistance, which was used to treat hepatitis C, at that time.
"The medicine comes as a grant [gift] from the USA. Without close cooperation with the Americans, our healthcare system would not have been able to meet the challenges and develop further", said Amiran Gamkrelidze.
