Between 2000 and 2012  there were 3830 recorded cases in the state of individuals with the blood-borne virus.

A Tasmanian Health Department spokesman said that while the disease could affect anyone at any age, it was estimated that in 2011 there were 220,000 Australians with chronic hepatitis C.

``[About] 3830 people notified the Department of Health [in Tasmania of their] hepatitis C infection between 2000 and 2012,'' the spokesman said. 

``While it is challenging to definitely determine the number living with hepatitis C in Tasmania, it may be approximately 7000 people.''

In the past  week  the federal government moved to address the hepatitis C health crisis by adding two drugs to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - Boceprevir and Telaprevir -  at a cost of $220 million over five years.

It serves as a hope to those who live with the virus by removing the financial barrier to the drugs, which were previously only available unsubsidised for $78,000.

A Launceston woman, who took 30 years to discover that she had hepatitis C,  said that while the subsidy was ``a lot of government money . . . it comes down to quality of life''.

``I don't just think of myself, I think of all the other people that it could help. We deserve a chance to live,'' she said.