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    Mayo Clinic Minute: Hepatitis C Epidemic

computer monitor screen with the sign Hepatitis CHepatitis C is a worldwide epidemic. Mayo Clinic experts estimate that nearly one-third of the globe's population has been or is infected with the hepatitis C virus. Most people don't know they have the infection because it doesn't cause symptoms until liver damage shows up decades later ⎯ often during routine medical tests.

Until recently, the hepatitis c virus was difficult to treat, but new medications can cure most cases. That's one reason the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants everyone born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested. That group is at increased risk, and most of those infected will benefit from new treatments.

In this Mayo Clinic Minute, reporter Vivien Williams talks to a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases doctor about the hepatitis C epidemic.

Watch the Mayo Clinic Minute.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (1:09) is in the downloads. Read the script.