As July 28 is World Hepatitis Day, all should know what the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is. It is a blood-borne virus that occurs by sharing needles or from unsterile tattoo equipment. Most people have no symptoms. It is treated with antiviral medications, but in case of some people treatment can be difficult. The disease causes chronic liver disease, serious liver damage, and liver failure.

The day spreads awareness about the diseases in order to eradicate it as a public health threat by the year 2030. Drugs to cure it come very costly and thus are not affordable by everybody in need. If drugs would continue to be unaffordable for patients with Hepatitis C, the goal could not be achieved. Therefore, people surfing from HCV or who are infected with both HIV and HCV will continue to be at risk.

One major concern associated with the Hepatitis C is that it comes without warning or symptoms in many people. People infected with Hepatitis C may not realize for decades about their illness because of absences of its symptoms. Those born between 1945 and 1965 are four to five times more likely to be infected with HCV, in comparison with age groups.

There is still a hope, the disease is curable with is medications that now act even speedily than before and have no serious side effects. But in case of those co-infected with HIV and HCV, treatment or cure can become difficult as they have weaker immune response to HCV than those not co-infected.

Earlier, HCV was an incurable for most HIV-positive people. But newly developed medication named interferon (IFN)-free direct acting antiviral (DAA) regimens was found to 95% successful at curing Hepatitis C patients, who were co-infected with HIV.

A report published in Mercury News revealed, "World Hepatitis Day is Thursday, and we urge the people of California to take this moment to focus on cancer prevention. What does cancer prevention have to do with hepatitis? Plenty. The hepatitis B and C viruses cause 80 percent to 95 percent of all liver cancer cases. Liver cancer kills about 16,000 men and 7,000 women in the United States each year."

There are also screenings to diagnose hepatitis C and highly effective treatments that will cure the infection before it leads to liver cancer. But despite the availability of these screenings and treatments, more than 1 million Californians suffer from cancer-causing hepatitis B or C.

In California, this demographic accounts for 66 percent of newly reported chronic hepatitis B cases. Hepatitis C disproportionately affects African-Americans and baby boomers. In fact, 56 percent of newly reported chronic hepatitis C cases in California occur in baby boomers. If you are in one of these high-risk groups, talk to your health care provider and your loved ones about protecting yourself from hepatitis B and C.

According to a report in NPR by Elana Gordon, "Hepatitis C virus, or HCV, is the most common bloodborne infection in the U.S. and a leading cause of liver failure and cancer. Injection drug use is a common risk factor, as is receiving a blood transfusion before 1992. But some of the teens Wen sees picked up the illness another way: at birth, from their mothers."

"Sixteen percent is really low," says Danica Kuncio, lead author of the study. "When you think about children, you hope that the number would be 100 percent, that it should be in the interest of every provider to be doing the best they can to get information to the next provider."

Not so long ago, the lack of drugs to cure hepatitis C made screening less of a priority. But in 2013, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first of several drugs that effectively eliminate the virus. Now, with access to these expensive medicines, the condition has gone from chronic and debilitating to curable.