University of Chicago Medicine will receive a $6.2 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to battle hepatitis C in Chicago, mounting an all-out assault on the disease, health care administrators will announce Thursday.

About 3.2 million Americans including up to 70,000 in Chicago have hepatitis C, about half of whom are unaware they have the infection, which can progress slowly and is largely symptom-free in its early stages. Over decades, infected individuals can suffer serious liver damage, including cirrhosis or cancer.

The grant will help fund the Hepatitis C Community Alliance to Test and Treat program. Along with other agencies, the initiative aims to train about 200 primary care providers at 30 community health centers over four years. The goal: to screen more than 18,000 Chicagoans annually, said officials.

"This is groundbreaking," said Dr. Daniel Johnson, chief of academic pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine. "This will become the template to track any disease process."

Technology will also play a key role in expanding reach. A videoconference system will allow clinicians to engage in case review and discussion. It also will facilitate surveillance and collecting data, along with using social media to increase awareness and promote testing.

"This is probably one of the largest-scale projects we've ever seen. ... It's not happening just at one center, but it uses everyone's strength, citywide " said Dr. Andrew Aronsohn, a University of Chicago Medicine hepatologist, who is developing the interactive curriculum.

Until recently, doctors had few weapons to combat the disease. But new drugs, while prohibitively expensive, are offering better outcomes with fewer side effects, physicians said.

Hepatitis C is spread when blood from an infected individual enters the body most commonly affecting intravenous drug users. But other populations are also vulnerable, including those who have been sexually active and those who had a blood transfusion before 1992, when donor blood testing became required in the U.S.

Two out of three of those living with the disease are baby boomers, according to the CDC, which recommends screening for everyone born from 1945 to 1965.

"This isn't just a fringe population," said Johnson, founder of Extension Community Healthcare Outcomes Chicago, which will lead the screening and treatment initiative. "If you've ever had unprotected sex, many sexual partners or had a partner who has had many partners, you're at risk. If you ever had something like a femur fracture (when you were a child) that might need a blood transfusion ... you could be at risk."

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U. of C. Medicine to take aim at hepatitis C