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Richmond, VA - Nearly 4 million people in the U.S. are living with a potentially fatal virus in their bodies, but only a fraction know it. Hepatitis C, the Hidden Killer, can lie dormant in your liver, causing slow and silent destruction for decades.

Now, a new round of drugs is bringing new hope to doctors and their patients. Until recently, treatments for Hepatitis C have been almost as painful as the virus itself. Doctors have been working furiously over the past several years to develop a new generation of drugs to cure patients in less time, with less effort, and with less pain.

"The new drugs that we're using, almost everybody is cured. In fact, now it's rare for somebody in these clinical trials not to be cured," said Dr. Mitchell Shiffman, Medical Director of the Bon Secours Liver Institute in Richmond.

The new treatments are a far cry from ones dating back just three years ago. Before 2011, the year-long process of treating Hepatitis C produced limited results and extensive side effects.

"Because of these low cure rates and the high side effect rates, this is why the vast majority of patients with Hepatitis C in the country, who know they have the virus, have not been treated," said Shiffman.

Only 25% of Americans with Hepatitis C know they have it. Less than half of those people are seeking treatment. The risks and benefits of older treatments just don't weigh out for most patients.

"It's depressing to take those medications and get side effects and not be cured," said Shiffman.

The main culprit of these side effects is interferon, an injection that's been known to cause depression, flu-like symptoms and fatigue. Bryan McKernon is all too familiar with the side effects interferon causes. The 57-year-old learned he had Hepatitis when he was 30. Back then, Hep C wasn't even on the radar for most doctors.

So, McKernon went to the Bon Secours Liver Institute in Richmond, to meet with Dr. Shiffman.

"When we first met Bryan he looked very healthy, but his liver was already very diseased," said Shiffman.

Continue reading here:
Hidden Killer Part 2: The Promise of New Hepatitis C Treatments