Wednesday, March 14, was Hepatitis C Legislative Awareness Day. On cue, hundreds of New Yorkers living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and activists gathered at the state capital of Albany to lobby for increased legislative action against hepatitis C, PRWEB reports. The gathering was organized by Status C Unknown, a hepatitis C nonprofit education and outreach group.

In the face of a constraining state budget, participants asked lawmakers both to maintain existing funding for hepatitis C education, testing and treatment and to approve additional funding for these purposes as recommended by the New York State Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT)’s Health Disparities Work Group.

The lobbying effort came just weeks after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report showed that in 2010, the number of U.S. deaths caused by hepatitis C surpassed those caused by HIV, and that 1 in 33 baby boomers are likely to be living with hepatitis C.