Natalie Cole has hepatitis C

Grammy-winning singer Natalie Cole has been diagnosed with hepatitis C, her publicist said in a statement Wednesday.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood. The statement said the disease was revealed during a routine examination and was likely caused by her drug use years ago.

Her physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dr. Graham Woolf, said Cole, 58, has had a “terrific response to her medication and is now virus negative.” He added that this “gives her an increased chance of cure.”