One Fine Day I Was Born Again: Letter to Hepatitis C Elimination Program Heads

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Mr. John C. Martin, Executive Chairman; Mr. Gregg H. Alton, Executive Vice President;

Mr. Clifford Samuel, Senior Vice President; Mr. Graeme Robertson, Senior Director - Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Dear Mr. Martin, Dear Mr. Alton, Dear Mr. Samuel, Dear Mr. Robertson:

This is a letter from Dr. Temur Radiani, a biologist, an amateur artist and a beneficiary of the Hepatitis C Elimination Program from Tbilisi, Georgia. We met in Tbilisi on August 8, 2017, during your visit to Georgia. While then we had a chance to shake hands and talk a little bit about the program and my recovery from illness, I really did not have an opportunity to fully express myself in describing how much I appreciate your company’s exceptional contribution to this unique program called ‘Georgia without Hepatitis C’. I feel it is my duty to do that not only for myself, but also for the thousands of other patients who have already benefitted or will be benefitting from the program in the future.

In 2008, I accidentally learned that I had been infected with HCV. I still remember how painful it was to learn it. HCV had caused me to lose a couple of close friends and, therefore, I knew very well what kind of problem I was facing. Some of them had undergone treatment with medicaments available at that time and I had personally witnessed what it had cost them both physically and morally, let alone financially. I realized that I was close to a critical margin and that I had to fight for my life.

I never hid my diagnosis from my family and friends. Why would I do this? It was with their moral and physical support that I learned to live in a new reality. First of all, I started collecting all sorts of information about HCV, the number of infected people in Georgia, the methods of treatment, available medicaments, etc. It is hard to describe the feelings that a man anticipating an inevitable lethal consequence has. In 2013, with my friends’ support, I started taking a costly medical treatment, but after three months I had to give it up because I found it completely ineffective.

At the end of 2013, my doctor, Professor Tamara Gegeshidze, told me that a new drug that could effectively fight HCV had been invented, but it would be totally inaccessible to me due to its price. I was desperate and hopeless. I was thinking of my family and those people who, like me, were badly in need of something new. Two words stuck in my head teased me constantly: ‘maybe sometime?’

And one fine day, I was born again. What I was dreaming of came true! The full support and the goodwill of the government, along with tireless efforts on the part of Ministry of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia in carrying out the program resulted in rewarding thousands and thousands of people for their desperate efforts with good health. Thanks to you and Minister David Sergeenko, what seemed impossible became possible. You need to know that thousands of HCV-infected persons in Georgia, including myself, owe our lives to your company. Let me thank you for that. Thanks to all who granted us a second chance!

In my struggle for my life, I learned that whatever happens to you, you should never give up, you should keep fighting, and eventually with a little luck and a lot of help from kind people, the virus will be defeated! I am sure that a few more years will pass and we will all be celebrating the full elimination of Hepatitis C in my country.

Yes, I won my war against the virus. All others will win theirs, too. We just need to remember: the future belongs to the world without HCV!

Yours,

Temur Radiani

P.S. I am really glad that Mr. Martin and Mr. Alton were awarded honorary medals from the Georgian government and I would like to sincerely congratulate them both.

for Georgia Today by Temur Radiani