Scientists have just discovered what could potentially be a breakthrough treatment for a pretty nasty disease.

Up to 200 million people worldwide suffer from a hepatitis C infection, mostly in Africa and Central and East Asia, so a cure would be a tremendous discovery for the world health community.

Scientists think they may have found an antiviral treatment that could cure acute hepatitis C over a period of six weeks, according to a PTI report.

The patients were given a combination of the drugs sofosbuvir and ledipasvir for six weeks, and all of them had undetectable Hep C (HCV) after a 12-week follow-up.

It’s rare to detect HCV early on, causing patients to develop serious liver damage before the disease is detected.

“Our research demonstrates that not only is the combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir safe, well tolerated and effective in acute HCV genotype 1 patients who have severe liver disease with very high liver enzymes, but a shorter treatment duration does not appear to hinder efficacy,” said Heiner Wedemeyer, professor at Hannover Medical School, according to the report.

The European Association for the Study of the Liver said in a recent statement that the discovery moved scientists a “step closer” to a combined vacciation for Hep C and HIV.

Katja Deterding from Hannover Medical School, Germany and study author, said in the statement: “Given the high cost of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir, and the associated side effects that occur during treatment, we set out to assess whether shortened treatment duration could be an effective option for acute Hepatitis C patients.”

“Our research demonstrates that not only is the combination of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir safe, well tolerated and effective in acute HCV genotype 1 patients who have severe liver disease with very high liver enzymes, but a shorter treatment duration does not appear to hinder efficacy,” confirmed Professor Heiner Wedemeyer, the senior author of this study.