Ivdity Chikovani

Curatio International Foundation | CIF · Research Unit

The purpose of this case study is to understand the transition of the National Immunization Program (NIP) from Gavi assistance, how immunization coverage was sustained post-transition including health system adaptations and changes and identify interaction of the policy context and content factors, actors and processes that influenced the transitio...

Background: The decade between the ages of 14 and 25 is a particularly vulnerable period for the development of mental health problems, especially of common mental disorders. Mental health and psychosocial prevention and support services for young people in the Republic of Georgia have been extremely limited, leaving a wide treatment and care gap....

BACKGROUND: Patient-centred care along with optimal financing of inpatient and outpatient services are the main priorities of the Georgia National TB Programme (NTP). This paper presents TB diagnostics and treatment unit cost, their comparison with NTP tariffs and how the study findings informed TB financing policy. METHODS: Top-down (TD) and botto...

Objectives This paper presents the iterative process of participatory multistakeholder engagement that informed the development of a new national tuberculosis (TB) policy in Georgia, and the lessons learnt. Methods Guided by realist evaluation methods, a multistakeholder dialogue was organised to elicit stakeholders’ assumptions on challenges and p...

Background: Georgia has a high prevalence of hepatitis C, with 5·4% of adults chronically infected. On April 28, 2015, Georgia launched a national programme to eliminate hepatitis C by 2020 (90% reduction in prevalence) through scaled-up treatment and prevention interventions. We evaluated the interim effect of the programme and feasibility of ach...

Background: Tuberculosis is one of the greatest global health concerns and disease management is challenging particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite improvements in addressing this epidemic in Georgia, tuberculosis remains a significant public health concern due to sub-optimal patient management. Low remuneration for specialists,...

Introduction: In the era of declining development assistance for health, transitioning externally funded programs to government becomes a priority for donors. However, the process requires a careful approach not only to preserve the public health gains that have already been achieved but also to expand on them. In the Eastern Europe and Central Asi...

ABSTRACT Introduction: In the era of declining development assistance for health, transitioning externally funded programs to governments becomes a priority for donors. However, the process requires a careful approach not only to preserve the public health gains that have already been achieved but also to expand on them. In the Eastern Europe and...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant public health concern worldwide. Georgia is among the countries with a high burden of HCV infection. People who inject drugs (PWID) have the highest burden of infection in Georgia. In 2015, the Government of Georgia, with partners’ support, initiated one of the world’s first Hepatitis C Elimination...

Introduction In order to determine the impact of HIV prevention and care programs, it is essential to look at both HIV incidence and prevalence estimates and trends over time. We estimated the HIV incidence and prevalence and assessed the trend using data from three cross-sectional surveys of men who have sex with men (MSM) in two cities in Georgia...

Introduction In 2016, Georgian researchers and policymakers were developing a policy to improve the performance of the national tuberculosis (TB) control programme. The research programme ‘Designing and Evaluating Provider Results-Based Financing for Tuberculosis Care in Georgia: Understanding Costs, Mechanisms of Effect and Impact (Results4TB)’ wa...

Background: There is a paucity of evidence on access to services for mental health and psychosocial support for conflict-affected populations in low- and middle-income countries. In the Republic of Georgia, rates of utilization of mental health services among internally displaced people with mental disorders are low. We set out to identify the hea...

Background and Aims Georgia has one of the highest hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence rates in the world, with >5% of the adult population (~150,000 people) chronically infected. In April 2015, the Georgian government, in collaboration with CDC and other partners, launched a national program to eliminate HCV through scaling up HCV treatment and pre...

Background: Whilst there is recognition that the global burden of disease associated with mental health disorders is significant, the economic resources available, especially in Low and Middle Income Countries, are particularly scarce. Identifying the economic (system) and financial (individual) barriers to delivering mental health services and as...

http://www.journal-of-hepatology.eu/article/S0168-8278(17)30401-4/abstract

Introduction: In Georgia as in most Eastern European countries, injecting drug use remains one of the leading transmission modes of HIV infection. This paper aims to identify HIV prevalence and risk determinants among people who inject drugs (PWID). Methodology: A cross -sectional, anonymous bio-behavioral survey of PWID was conducted in seven c...

The document presents a brief summary of best international practices in providing Tuberculosis (TB) services within Primary Health Care (PHC) in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC), and High-Income Countries (HIC). The summary is based on the review of the latest interventions and evidence reports from 2007-2017. The review is suitable for a wi...

A Transition Preparedness Assessment (TPA) Framework was developed under The Global Fund support with aim to assist countries planning or in the process of transitioning their HIV and TB programs from donor support. The TPA looks at external and internal environments, programs components, spanning from economic and political support to financial an...

A Transition Preparedness Assessment (TPA) Tool was developed under The Global Fund support and was piloted in thirteen countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Asia during 2015-2017. The TPA tool is an excel instrument based on the TPA Framework and allows calculating of preparedness assessment indicators and an overall...

A Transition Preparedness Assessment (TPA) Tool was developed under The Global Fund support and was piloted in thirteen countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and Asia during 2015-2017. The TPA tool is an excel instrument based on the TPA Framework and allows calculating of preparedness assessment indicators and an overall...

Sustainability of national HIV/AIDS, mostly dependent on external funding, gains importance in light of recent changes in the Global funding landscape when significant HIV funders are redirecting resources to poorer states while phasing out from middle-income countries. Sustaining public health gains and expanding it further requires a nuanced unde...

The identification of barriers and bottlenecks and their timely removal or reduction, are pre-requisites for implementing effective public health interventions. The evaluation aimed to document progress in reducing under-5 and infant mortality and morbidity and to generate lessons and inform UNICEF programmes. The evaluation was based on the Theory...

Background Noncommunicable diseases are the leading causes of death globally, killing more people each year than all other causes combined and among them the mental health disorders are at the top of the global disease burden. Mental health disorder is especially important for middle income countries and the situation is alarming in Post Soviet Uni...

The evaluation assessed how Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) and Albania transitioned away from Gavi support and what was the impact on sustainability of National Immunization Programs. Gavi’s graduation policy did not exist at the time when the countries funding ended. The evaluations were conducted in BiH (2014) and Albania (2015). Mix method approach...

The poster describes key methodological challenges emerged during population size estimation studies’ fieldwork while using an innovative method - Network-based capture-recapture (NCRC). This method proposed by Dombrowski was introduced among methamphetamine users in the USA in 2012. The NCRC was first time applied in Georgia among Men who have Sex...

Curatio International Foundation conducted an assessment of GAVI Alliance HSS support to Tajikistan to provide solid evidence of to what extent the support achieved its objectives and contributed to strengthen the health system of the country. The assessment aimed to identify successes, key challenges and lessons learned that may help GAVI Alliance...

Curatio International Foundation conducted an assessment of GAVI Alliance HSS support to Tajikistan to provide solid evidence of to what extent the support achieved its objectives and contributed to strengthen the health system of the country. The assessment aimed to identify successes, key challenges and lessons learned that may help GAVI Alliance...

Curatio International Foundation conducted the evaluation study and assessed financial and programmatic sustainability through an in-depth analysis of Albania’s experiences and immunization programme performance before, during and after the conclusion of Gavi’s support period to the country. The evaluation also identified factors contributing to t...

Introduction: An accurate estimation of the population size of men who have sex with men (MSM) is critical to the success of HIV program planning and to monitoring of the response to epidemic as a whole, but is quite often missing. In this study, our aim was to estimate the population size of MSM in Tbilisi, Georgia and compare it with other estim...

Aims: Adults who experienced the 1992 and 2008 armed conflicts in the Republic of Georgia were exposed to multiple traumatic events and stressors over many years. The aim was to investigate what coping strategies are used by conflict-affected persons in Georgia and their association with mental disorders. Method: A cross-sectional survey was con...

The current study describes the most recent wave of Bio-Behavioral Surveillance (BBS) Survey among prisoner population in Georgia, that has been conducted since 2008. The study aims to measure HIV prevalence among prisoners, monitor their risk behavior and generate evidence for advocacy and policy-making. The study used a Simple Random Sampling Me...

The current study describes the most recent wave of Bio-Behavioral Surveillance (BBS) Survey surveys among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) in Georgia the study has been implemented since 2007. The study aims to measure HIV prevalence among MSMs and also was looking at HCV and STI (Syphilis) prevalence. The study used a cross-sectional design and r...

The current study describes the most recent wave of BBS surveys among People Who Inject Drugs (PWIDs) in Georgia. Bio-BBS surveys among PWIDs has been conducted since 2002. The aim of this study is to measure HIV prevalence among PWIDs, monitor risk behaviors among these group and generate evidence for advocacy and policy-making. The study used a c...

Available estimates on how much it costs to provide routine immunization services are out-dated. This study attempts to address gaps in evidence by evaluating the total economic and unit costs of delivering routine immunization (RI) services in Moldova as part of a multi-country study on the costs and financing of routine immunization (EPIC). This...

There is large gap in mental illness treatment globally and potentially especially so in war-affected populations. The study aim was to examine health care utilization patterns for mental, behavioural and emotional problems among the war-affected adult population in the Republic of Georgia. A cross-sectional household survey was conducted among 360...

There are substantial risk factors for somatic distress (SD) among civilian populations affected by armed conflict in low and middle income countries. However, the evidence is very limited. Our aim was to examine patterns of SD among conflict-affected persons in the Republic of Georgia, which has over 200,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) fro...

There remains limited evidence on comorbidity of mental disorders among conflict-affected civilians, particularly internally displaced persons (IDPs) and former IDPs who have returned to their home areas (returnees). The study aim was to compare patterns of mental disorders and their influence on disability between IDPs and returnees in the Republi...

In this study we apply the principles of patient-centred care to assess how health systems in middle income countries shape the experiences of patients with a common chronic disease and their care providers. We conducted semi-structured interviews with patients with diabetes, health professionals and key informants. We selected interviewees by purp...

Georgia is among the countries with low HIV/AIDS prevalence but with a high potential for the development of a widespread epidemic. From the early years of epidemic injecting drug use was the main route of HIV transmission, however, for the last two years heterosexual transmission is prevailing. During the last two years heterosexual transmission w...

Executive summary Background and objectives Estimates of the number of people at risk for HIV infection, including men who have sex with men (MSM), are crucial for prevention, treatment and care planning. The Georgia Population Size Estimation of MSM is the second study of its kind (the first one conducted in 2010) to estimate the size of this popu...

Executive Summary: Background and objectives Georgia is among the countries with low HIV/AIDS prevalence, but with a high potential for the development of a widespread epidemic. From the early years of epidemic injecting drug use was the main route of HIV transmission, however, for the last two years heterosexual transmission is prevailing. During...

In 2014 Curatio International Foundation conducted a study on financial barriers of the mental health system. The study employed qualitative research methods, as well as literature review and secondary data analysis. The document presents main barriers existing at the different levels of the system creating access problems to adequate and quality s...

Background The evidence on alcohol use disorder among conflict-affected civilian populations remains extremely weak, despite a number of potential risk-factors. The aim of this study is to examine patterns of alcohol use disorder among conflict-affected persons in the Republic of Georgia. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 3600 randomly selected...

The costs and financing of the national immunization programs have been evaluated since 1980s, particularly as part of Universal Childhood Immunization Initiative. However, available information is out-dated and up-to-date knowledge on full economic costs and financing of routine immunization programs, as well as the financial cost and financing of...

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate HIV testing practice among female sex workers (FSWs) and men who have sex with men (MSM) in Tbilisi, Georgia and to identify determinants of never testing behaviour among MSM. Methods: Data obtained in two rounds of bio-behavioural surveys among FSWs (2006 and 2009) and MSM (2007 and 2010) were...

Objective: Objective of the study was to estimate costs associated to a new GAVI Alliance supported vaccine introduction in Moldova and implications on the financial sustainability of a routine immunization system after GAVI graduation. Methods: This is a facility based costing study, which looked at total costs of a routine immunization arising...

Background: There is very little evidence globally on tobacco use and nicotine dependence among civilian populations affected by armed conflict, despite key vulnerability factors related to elevated mental disorders and socio-economic stressors. The study aim was to describe patterns of smoking and nicotine dependence among conflict-affected civil...

Background: There is very little evidence globally on tobacco use and nicotine dependence among civilian populations affected by armed conflict, despite key vulnerability factors related to elevated mental disorders and socio-economic stressors. The study aim was to describe patterns of smoking and nicotine dependence among conflict-affected civili...

Georgia is among the countries with low HIV/AIDS prevalence but high potential for developing a widespread epidemic. From the early stage of HIV epidemic in Georgia injecting drug use was the major mode of transmission. However, for the last two years heterosexual transmission became prevailing route for HIV spread. Current study represent the subs...