ATLANTA — All baby boomers should get a one-time blood test to learn if they have the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus, U.S. health officials said Thursday.

It can take decades for the blood-borne virus to cause liver damage and symptoms to emerge, so many people don't know they're harboring it. Baby boomers account for about two-thirds of the estimated 3.2 million infected Americans.

More than 15,000 Americans die each year from hepatitis C-related illnesses and the number has been growing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.