Live Chain to Support Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Members of the Union of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis organized a campaign ‘Everything is in Our Hands,’ aiming to reach every member of the community with an important message. They are requesting funding for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis for adult citizens. With signatures collected through an online petition in hand, the campaign participants applied to the Ministry of Health and the Tbilisi City Council.

The main objective of the campaign is to increase public awareness about Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) as a severe disease, in order to diagnose it promptly and ensure access to adequate treatment. All volunteers are welcome take part in the campaign and support patients by joining the live chain: ‘Healthy Joints – this can be achieved.’

“RA patients can hardly move due to unbearable pain, their joints become deformed and lose their function and finally fully restrict movement. Our goal is to increase public awareness about this disease, since the support of each and every one of you increases the chance of sufferers having access to adequate treatment,” said Marina Sagharadze, one of the founders of the Union of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.

“Real desires and physical abilities never coincide with each other,” said Rusudan Ebanoidze, one of the members of the Union. “It’s very stressful. I am at the IV stage of the disease. As well as suffering from extreme pain, my limbs have begun to deform. Unless the biological medicines are used promptly, the outcome can be life-threatening. These are the medicines that bring miraculous changes; they in fact halt the illness.”

The number of online petitioners was announced and the published results were sent to the Ministry of Health and Tbilisi City Council with the request to increase the availability of biological medicines for RA patients in Georgia. As representatives of the Ministry noted, they were already familiar with the problem and expressed hope that new services would be added to the Universal Health Insurance. However, in the meantime, RA patients will be able to apply to the Ministry with a request that will be reviewed by the respective Commission and a respective decision will be made on expediency of funding allocation.

The outreach campaign was provided by the Gepra Company.

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