NHS England figures show over 100,000 people have received pioneering antiviral drugs since 2015 that cure over 95% of cases.

Secretary of state for health and social care, Yvette Cooper, said: ‘This is exactly the kind of preventative, forward-looking healthcare that we want the NHS to deliver across the board - catching illness earlier, easing pressure on hospitals, and giving people the chance to live longer, healthier lives.'

England is one of handful of countries to have exceeded the WHO benchmark of treating 80% of all known cases, with deaths from the virus being reduced by 36% in the last 10 years.

The treatment drive has been made possible by a landmark deal struck in 2019 with pharmaceutical companies Gilead Sciences, MSD and AbbVie.

The figures come as the NHS urges those at greater risk of having undiagnosed hepatitis C – including those who have moved to England from certain Eastern European countries, those who have had a tattoo abroad, or those who use or have previously used injectable drugs – to order a free and confidential home-testing kit online to help rule the virus out.

Adults born in Ukraine, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Albania, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Czechia or Slovakia are particularly urged to test, as many could have been potentially infected through medical or dental procedures before 1991, when modern sterilisation standards were introduced.