DENVER -- The hepatitis C scare at Rose Medical Center has raised the profile of a disease that doctors say is under reported.

It is estimated that two percent of the population has the virus.

Steve Piper was diagnosed with the disease seven years ago. He believes he was infected with the virus as a teenager when he experimented with drugs.

He has since had liver cancer and a liver transplant, but is now doing well.

“It’s not a death sentence,” he said. “It’s a disease that is manageable, but you have to know that you have it.”

Dr. Gregory Everson of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center specializes in liver disease and hepatitis C.

“It’s important not to bury your head in the sand,” he told 7NEWS.

About half the people with chronic hepatitis C respond to treatment. If that treatment begins early, patients have a much better outcome.