The federal government is under pressure to immediately subsidise new Hep C treatments or risk the deaths of thousands more sufferers.

Thousands more Australians could die from liver disease unless the government starts subsidising new Hepatitis C treatments, experts warn.

New data released by the University of NSW Kirby Institute shows deaths related to chronic hepatitis C have increased by a staggering 146 per cent in a decade - from 280 in 2004, to 690 last year.

The number of Australians living with severe liver disease related to hepatitis C has more than doubled to 44,730 over the same period.

However treatment rates remain abysmally low: just one per cent of the total 230,500 Australians who have the disease received treatment in 2014.

Hepatitis Australia says highly effective new treatments were recommended for inclusion in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme six months ago, but so far there's been no action.

"Interferon-free therapies will allow the vast majority of people living with the hepatitis C virus to be cured, even where treatment has failed previously and without the terrible side effects of existing treatments," Hepatitis Australia's acting CEO Kevin Marriott says.

"It's time for the federal government to act on the advice of its experts and make these new cures widely available before more people progress to serious liver disease and die."

Professor Greg Dore from the Kirby Institute says Australia will see a 245 per cent increase in rates of liver cancer and a 230 per cent increase in hepatitis C-related deaths by 2030 unless treatment rates improve.

"Thousands of Australians are queuing up waiting for new medicines to be PBS listed," Prof Dore said.

"These treatments provide one of the great breakthroughs in clinical medicine in recent decades, with enormous potential to improve the lives of people living with hepatitis C."