MSF began working in Georgia in 1993 to deliver healthcare to people affected by internal displacement and conflict, before providing treatment to people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
Over the following years since 1993, we provided assistance to Chechen refugees in Pankisi Valley, running medical and surgical programmes as well as donating drugs. From 2000, we expanded our activities to include general healthcare for vulnerable people and treatment for visceral leishmaniasis.
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is a major public health issue in Georgia: 12 per cent of all new patients and 39 per cent of those who have previously been treated for TB have a multidrug-resistant form of the disease.
In 2014, we started supporting the Ministry of Health in treating people with MDR-TB with the newest drugs, bedaquiline and delaminid, including through the endTB drug trial. We ended our projects in Georgia in 2020 with the last follow up of the trial’s patients.
