Nationwide hepatitis C serosurvey and progress towards HCV elimination in the country of Georgia, 2021.

BACKGROUND: The country of Georgia initiated its hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination program in 2015, at which point a serosurvey showed the adult prevalence of HCV antibody (anti-HCV) and HCV RNA to be 7.7% and 5.4%, respectively. This analysis reports hepatitis C results of a follow-up serosurvey conducted in 2021, and progress towards elimination.

METHODS: The serosurvey used a stratified, multi-stage cluster design with systematic sampling to include adults and children (aged 5-17 years) providing consent (or assent with parental consent). Blood samples were tested for anti-HCV and if positive, HCV RNA. Weighted proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were compared with 2015 age-adjusted estimates.

RESULTS: Overall, 7,237 adults and 1,473 children were surveyed. Among adults, the prevalence of anti-HCV was 6.8% (95% CI: 5.9-7.7). The HCV RNA prevalence was 1.8% (95% CI: 1.3-2.4), representing a 67% reduction since 2015. HCV RNA prevalence decreased among those reporting risk factors of ever injecting drugs (51.1% to 17.8%), and ever receiving a blood transfusion (13.1% to 3.8%) (both p < 0.001). No children tested positive for anti-HCV or HCV RNA.

CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate substantial progress made in Georgia since 2015. These findings can inform strategies to meet HCV elimination targets.