The end of hepatitis C?

2014 will do down as a pivotal year in the fight against hepatitis C virus (HCV), a blood-borne infection that is thought to infect around 2.5% of the world's population - some 170 million people.

The availability of new, more effective therapies for hepatitis C virus have raised the tantalising prospect of being able to eliminate the infection on a global basis,  although there are still significant obstacles to overcome.

Viral hepatitis - which generally means hepatitis B and C - “kills more people every year than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined, but has not had the same level of resources committed to it,” according to Charles Gore, who is chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust in the UK and president of the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA).

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UK-Prime Minister Apologizes for Tainted Blood Scandal That Infected Thousands in '70s, '80s

LONDON— British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday apologized to thousands of patients who were infected from contaminated blood during the 1970s and 1980s.

Tainted government blood products and transfusions infected an estimated 2,500 people with the hepatitis C virus and HIV from 1970 to 1991. The scandal has been called the worst treatment disaster in the history of Britain's public health care system.

Cameron's apology came after a six-year official inquiry was completed. The probe said more should have been done to screen blood and donors in the early 1990s, and that the collection of blood from prisoners should have stopped earlier.

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