Hepatitis C Treatment: How to Heal Your Liver

Untreated, hepatitis C can last for decades in the body. Over time, it can cause serious damage to the liver. This can even be life threatening.

“Your liver is [a] really important organ. It's like the factory in your body that processes everything that comes in,” says Sanjai Sinha, MD, Internist at Weill Cornell Medical Center. “The liver is crucial [to] make sure that your body keeps the things that it needs and gets rid of the things that it doesn't.”

What hepatitis C treatments are available?

If you test positive for this infection, your doctor may recommend new medications for hepatitis C. These medications are called direct-acting antivirals. These antiviral treatments generally don’t cause many side effects for most people.

Direct-acting antivirals for hepatitis C also come as combination medications. These formulations combine more than one type of medication to target multiple parts of the virus. Your doctor will know which medication is right for you based on blood tests.

How effective is hepatitis C treatment?

Direct-acting antiviral hepatitis C medication can help cure the infection and keep the liver strong and healthy. These medications are more effective than previous hepatitis C treatments. Some types of direct-acting antiviral medications lead to a cure in over 95 percent of cases of people who take them in 8 to 12 weeks.

“I let my patients know if they have hepatitis C that they should remain very optimistic because we can cure this quickly,” says Dr. Sinha.

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Written by:

Lauren Smith, MA

Lauren Smith, MA, has worked in health journalism since 2017. Before joining GoodRx, she was the senior health editor and writer for HealthiNation.

Reviewed by:

Alexandra Schwarz, MD

Alexandra Schwarz, MD, is a board-eligible sleep medicine physician and a board-certified family medicine physician. She is a member of both the AASM and the ABFM.

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