Dying from hepatitis C is a notoriously miserable way to go.

The virus attacks your liver in many cases, destroying its ability to make proteins and filter blood. You might not notice at first, because it can inflict damage gradually and silently until finally you start to feel symptoms that could include fatigue, jaundice, mental disorientation, severe itching and joint pain. Your belly could fill up with so much fluid that doctors have to drain it, while gastrointestinal difficulties might have you vomiting up blood.

This could go on for months or years, and eventually your liver could fail completely. A transplant might save you, but only if you can get one, and only if it works.

Hepatitis C kills thousands of Americans every year, making it the nations deadliest bloodborne infectious disease. And it doesnt have to be this way .

Theres a cure for hepatitis C that works in almost all cases an antiviral medication thats been around for a decade, needs to be taken for just two or three months, and has relatively mild side effects. But lots of Americans diagnosed with the disease arent getting the drug because its too expensive, or theyre getting it only after the virus has already done severe damage. Takeup is worst among low-income groups and uninsured people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , although even among the privately insured, only about one-third have initiated treatment within a year of testing positive.

President Joe Biden has proposed to do something about that. His 2024 budget calls for a campaign to eliminate hepatitis C by making sure at-risk people are aware of the disease and its cure, giving providers the training and tools to identify cases early, and getting the medication to everyone who needs it. Although nobody believes the campaign would actually wipe out the disease, at least in the near term, experts think it could dramatically reduce its incidence and the death toll too.

Of course, Biden has endorsed plenty of other promising ideas to improve public health. The prospects for making most of them a reality these days are slim given divided control of Congress, not to mention many conservatives aversion to anything that requires about $5 billion in new federal outlays over 10 years, as the hepatitis C campaign would.

But theres real hope for this proposal, starting with its actual budget arithmetic.

A comprehensive hepatitis C strategy could actually save the federal government money, because curing the disease is so much cheaper than paying to treat its complications. One independent analysis has projected about $13 billion in reduced federal spending over the first 10 years , with much larger windfalls in the future.

Thats a big number but it starts to make sense when you consider that a single liver transplant typically costs more than $100,000 for the procedure, followed by tens of thousands of dollars annually to maintain.

And while that kind of logic doesnt always prevail in Washington, this particular proposal includes among its champions two people in a unique position to affect the debate. One is a world-famous scientist with credibility on both sides of the aisle. The other is the ranking Republican senator on a key committee. Not coincidentally, each has a personal connection to the issue.

The Scientist

The renowned scientist is Francis Collins , former leader of the Human Genome Project and director of the National Institutes of Health. He served as Bidens acting science adviser for most of 2022, and has continued to lead the hepatitis C initiative since then. His personal connection to the issue is through his brother-in-law, who died from the disease 11 years ago.

You wouldnt believe what he went through, the gradual liver failure, to the point of being almost bedridden, Collins told HuffPost. His brother-in-law was actually one of the lucky ones who was able to get a liver transplant. But during the procedure, doctors discovered liver cancer, which along with some other hepatitis C complications ultimately killed him. I dont want anybody to go through that again.

It was around the time of his death that the pharmaceutical giant Gilead got approval for a breakthrough drug Sofosbuvir, sold under the brand name Sovaldi. Unlike earlier treatments that came with serious side effects and frequently didnt cure the disease, Gilead announced, Sovaldi wiped out the virus in more than 90% of cases.