An estimated 160 million people worldwide are affected by hepatitis C, a virus that attacks the liver and can lead to liver cancer, cirrhosis, and liver failure. It can be decades before symptoms arise, so an estimated 75 percent of patients have no idea they're infected with the virus.
This so-called silent epidemic is the focus of KQED's QUEST. The show discusses the latest research, including a recent discovery of a novel class of compounds that, in experiments in vitro, inhibit replication of the virus. Jeffrey Glenn, MD, PhD, directs Stanford's Center for Hepatitis and Liver Tissue Engineering and led that work. He's featured at the six-minute mark of the video above.
