The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pictured. The federal agency recently released two reports that prompted Oregon health officials to seek more resources for treating Hepatitis C.(Photo courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Oregon has clocked in at the top of a nationwide database for rates of hepatitis C, prompting state health officials to call for increased resources aimed at stemming the disease’s impact on Oregon’s most vulnerable communities.

People in Oregon are 2.7 times more likely to die from hepatitis C compared to those who live in other states, according to two annual reports on hepatitis C released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April. The most recent data in those reports is from 2023.

That puts Oregon behind only the District of Columbia and Oklahoma, according to the center. The average rate of hepatitis C-related deaths in Oregon stands at 6.76 per 100,000 people, the data shows.

“Hepatitis C is common, causes serious illness and leads to a lot of hospitalizations and deaths,” said Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations at the Oregon Health Authority’s public health division, in a Monday news release. “The good news is that we can now treat it and spare people a lot of suffering.”

The viral disease involves liver inflammation, hampering the body’s ability to fight infections and filter its blood after an infection takes hold. Symptoms of hepatitis C include yellow skin, lack of appetite, pain in the stomach or dark urine, which can progress into chronic pain or cancer in extreme cases.

While alcohol use and certain medications can cause the condition, it can also be transmitted through the sharing of drug-injection equipment, unprotected sexual activity and sharing other personal, non-sterile equipment in health care settings or businesses like tattoo parlors.

Who’s most affected?

Health officials’ analysis of the CDC’s data for Oregon found that those who use illicit drugs are  most likely to develop an infection. They also pegged those aged 20 to 29 years old as most likely to acquire the disease, with Black and Native American communities around twice as likely to contract the virus “due to systemic challenges.”

The rise of the infection has also been particularly acute in rural areas of Oregon, with a March 2025 study from Oregon Health & Science University finding that peer support and easy access to telemedicine care led to a 63% cure rate, nearly four times higher than those served by their local providers. No such program exists statewide in Oregon.

“My hope is that public health can play the important role of linking people with hepatitis C to appropriate care,” Cieslak said in the release. “We’d love to be able to implement peer support services and telehealth for hepatitis C systematically across the state.”

Efforts to increase access to care and interventions against the disease are underway as part of OHA 2024-27 Strategic Plan, which aims to expand access to vaccines and other health resources for communities throughout Oregon. Vaccines are not available for preventing hepatitis C, but the disease can be cured with treatment and medication, often within eight to 12 weeks, according to the CDC.

The health authority is calling for additional resources to improve local responses to hepatitis C screening, such as more peer-supported services, additional streamlined pathways to life-saving care and monitoring systems for tracking testing and curing rates.