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Deaths from hepatitis C in the United States continued climbing in 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday, but experts hope the trend will reverse over the next few years as more people with the virus receive highly effective new treatments. The agency also found that more Americans died from complications of hepatitis C in 2013 than from 60 other infectious conditions combined, including H.I.V., tuberculosis and pneumococcal disease. But while there has been an explosion in new hepatitis C cases among young opioid addicts who inject heroin and other drugs with shared needles, the rising deaths are largely among baby boomers who contracted the virus decades ago and have deteriorated over time. (Goodnough, 5/4)

Baby boomers, born between 1945 and 1965, are the hardest hit group. They account for 75 percent of all hepatitis C infections. Many of them have unknowingly been living with the infection for years and were most likely infected during medical procedures after World War II, when injection and blood transfusion technologies were not as safe as they are now, health officials said. About 3.5 million Americans have chronic hepatitis C infection, and the number of deaths related to the disease has been on the rise in recent years despite the availability of new drugs that cure the disease. (Sun, 5/4)

"Not everyone is getting tested and diagnosed, people don't get referred to care as fully as they should, and then they are not being placed on treatment," said Dr. John Ward, director of CDC's division of viral hepatitis. At the same time, surveillance data analyzed by the CDC shows an alarming uptick in new cases of hepatitis C, mainly among those with a history of using injectable drugs. From 2010 to 2014, new cases of hepatitis C infection more than doubled. Because hepatitis C has few noticeable symptoms, said Ward, the 2,194 cases reported in 2014 are likely only the tip of the iceberg. (LaMotte, 5/4)