Jonathan Elderfield/The Associated Press Sharing needles to inject heroin is one way hepatitis C is transmitted. Hepatitis C kills more Americans each year than any other infectious disease, more than the combined total of 60 infectious diseases reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Jay Inslee announced last fall a mission to eliminate hepatitis C there by 2030. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, last year pledged to eliminate hepatitis C in the state without specifying by what date. Until 2014, the medicines used to treat hepatitis C were not particularly effective, required lengthy treatment spans, and came with severe side effects.

Source: Huffington Post February 25, 2019 20:03 UTC