An estimated 180,000 Australians are living with hepatitis C infection. As we know, direct-acting antivirals have revolutionised treatment, leading to a significant drop in liver failure and liver cancers related to the virus.

But now the potential is even greater: not only are these highly effective drugs providing a new lease on life for those living with hepatitis C, they may be key to widening the pool of organ donors, permitting organs from infected people to be used in the uninfected.

In a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of doctors from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, US, demonstrates how they successfully prevented hepatitis C infection from occurring in recipients of hearts and lungs from infected donors.

The researchers, led by infectious diseases physician Dr Ann Woolley, started 44 patients — 36 lung recipients and eight heart recipients — on a pan-genotypic antiviral regimen within hours of surgery.