title: [Urgent problems of occupational diseases in Georgia in the junction of XX-XXI centuries].
abstract: The radical reform of health care system in Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union negatively affected the occupational medicine, environmental medicine, occupational health services, and preventive measures. The level of medical assistance to people suffering from harmful industrial factors decreased, which is a serious danger for the health of the workers and for the next generations. The aim of the article is to protect the right to means for adequate health and suggest effective ways for health care improvement. In order to reconstruct the system of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, it is necessary to create a network of occupational healthcare. We strongly believe investment in preventive health is vital to safeguard and improve the health of the community. The Center of Occupational Medicine and the Institute of Labor Medicine and Ecology with corresponding financing, educational programs for medical students and continuous practice of physicians in occupational medicine, enhancing the number of the scientific research designed to discover the early forms of occupational pathologies and timely prevention of the disease is vital to protect the right to means for adequate health, to advance the professional development of physicians, nurses, research scientists, and allied health professionals in order to diminish general and occupational diseases in Georgia.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Tsimakuridze
authors.forename: V P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Saakadze
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Tsereteli
mesh_terms: D005846:Georgia (Republic) / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009017:Morbidity / Q000639:trends; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*