Doctors: We can kill hepatitis C

Hepatitis C could be eliminated within 30 years, a group of leading doctors said today.

The number of people contracting the virus is soaring - but only 800 of London's 34,000 victims receive the drugs that could cure them.

Without action, the NHS in the capital faces a £600million bill to tackle the disease over the next few years, says the London Joint Working Group on hepatitis C.

But its chairman, Professor David Nutt, said: "Treatment could cure the majority of people affected.

"Targeting the most at-risk groups today could result in a huge reduction in transmission of the disease and it is not unrealistic to suggest that it could be virtually eliminated by 2040."