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# Faster, Easier Cures for Hepatitis C
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/cures_for_hepatitis_c_0728141103/
- Published: 2014-07-28T12:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T14:19:21.000Z
- Description: FDA's Jeffrey Murray says newly approved drug therapies give the 3.2 million Americans with chronic hepatitis C a chance at a cure with regimens that are easier to take. Three in four patients are baby boomers, many unaware they carry the virus, and a simple blood test can detect it.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

By FDA

**On this page:**

- A Preventable and Curable Disease
- Baby Boomers and Hepatitis C

Transformative advances in drug treatments approved by the Food and Drug Administration are giving the 3.2 million Americans with chronic hepatitis C a chance for a longer, healthier life without the virus. That’s welcome news for baby boomers—who make up three of four adults with the hepatitis C virus—and millions of other Americans, many of whom don’t yet know they are infected and carriers.

Hepatitis C can be cured, and today’s drug therapies are very effective and easier for patients to take, says Jeffrey S. Murray, M.D., the deputy director of the Division of Antiviral Products in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Murray is an internist who specializes in infectious diseases.

#### A Preventable and Curable Disease

Hepatitis e-mails list, along with notices of upcoming public events, such as advisory committee meetings, and opportunities to comment on policies and issues that affect people with hepatitis B or C.

#### Baby Boomers and Hepatitis C

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Three in four patients with chronic hepatitis C are baby boomers (people born from 1945 to 1965), and many became infected before the virus was identified and the blood supply was tested for the disease. That’s why it’s important for baby boomers—there are 76.4 million of them, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—to take a simple blood test for hepatitis C.

“When it comes to hepatitis C, the outlook for the future is better, but the past is catching up with us—especially if you are a baby boomer,” Murray says. “Still, this is a fortuitous time because better hepatitis C treatments are becoming available just as the patient population at risk of long-term complications is about to peak. There are treatments for chronic hepatitis and many reasons to get tested now more than ever because of the availability of safe and effective therapies.”

This article appears on [FDA’s Consumer Updates page](http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/default.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org), which features the latest on all FDA-regulated products.

*July 28, 2014*

### For More Information

- [Hepatitis B and C](http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ByAudience/ForPatientAdvocates/ucm151488.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org)
- [Hepatitis C Info From CDC](http://www.cdc.gov/hepatitis/C/index.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org)

### Related Consumer Updates

- [Sometimes Drugs and the Liver Don't Mix](http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm398855.htm?ref=foodconsumer.org)