Hepatitis C now kills more people in the United States than every other infectious disease combined, according to new government data.
New data shows hepatitis C killed nearly 20,000 people in 2014. Even more worrying for doctors is that an estimated 3.5 million people in the U.S. have the hepatitis C virus, but half of them don’t even know.
Hepatitis C symptoms, like fever, nausea and joint pain are often too mild to warrant a trip to the doctor, so it sometimes goes undiagnosed.
The virus can usually be knocked out with a 12-week pill regimen, but if left untreated, it can cause cirrhosis or cancer in the liver.
Most of those killed by hepatitis C are baby boomers because the virus was unknown to doctors when they were kids.
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(Video Source: Newsy)
