Can You Die from Hepatitis C?

Hepatitis C is a viral disease that harms the liver and it can be fatal in some cases. Patients infected with hepatitis C virus die on average 15 years sooner than people who do not have the illness.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists 18,153 deaths in 2016 due to hepatitis C as an underlying or contributing cause of death.

With hepatitis C, the liver becomes seriously damaged due to inflammation and this can lead to potentially fatal complications including cirrhosis, which is severe scarring of the liver, liver failure, and liver cancer. About 10-20 percent of patients with hepatitis C will develop cirrhosis within 20-30 years, 3-6 percent will go into liver failure, and 1-5 percent will develop liver cancer.

For more information, read our full medical article on hepatitis C.