{"id":14917,"date":"2026-05-28T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/disease-prevention\/?p=14917"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:32:02","slug":"thomas-personal-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/disease-prevention\/2026\/05\/28\/thomas-personal-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas’ Personal Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"My name is Thomas, and I was cured of hepatitis C. Here\u2019s my story:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been almost 30 years since I was diagnosed with both HIV and hepatitis C. At that time, I was using substances and participating in intravenous (IV) drugs. That didn\u2019t last long, so I didn\u2019t think much about it, but when I was diagnosed it was such a shock. I spiraled out of control and started using again. I eventually got control and saw a specialist for treatment. The Interferon and other meds I started were overwhelming. I was working full-time and I remember one time I went to work, and it was so cold and I was so exhausted. I just hid away and curled up because I just couldn\u2019t deal with everything I was feeling. I went back to my doctor and said, \u201cI can\u2019t do this anymore.\u201d My doctor told me I should go out on disability. I did go out on disability and moved in with my mom in Virginia.<\/p>\n

That is when my life started to change for the better, when I started to become an advocate. Once I settled in Virginia, I became an HIV advocate and talked about the importance of HIV care. I wasn\u2019t ready to advocate around hepatitis C because of the stigma associated with my drug use \u2013 I wasn\u2019t there yet. In 2008, I got sick again and had to be admitted to the hospital. I never finished the Interferon because of the negative side effects. I had assumed that I still had hepatitis C, and it was getting worse. I started using drugs again and fell back into a dark place. This lasted for about a year. Eventually, my doctor told me that they were doing a clinical trial of new hepatitis C drugs. I flat out refused, afraid that I would have side effects like the last time. She assured me I would not get sick from this new medicine and that there would be little to no side effects. I started the trial, and after the lab tests came back, I found out that my initial treatment for hepatitis C had cured me. I had re-infected myself with hepatitis C. That felt like a slap in the face, but it was also a wake-up call for me. I realized that I needed to take better care of myself. I didn\u2019t want things like this to continue to happen to me. I wanted to be a \u201cnormal\u201d person. I wanted to be able to go out and work every day and not be ashamed and have all this stuff in my life causing so much chaos. At that point in my life, I decided, \u201cNo more! I\u2019m stopping with the drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is when I also started advocating for hepatitis C, too. I didn\u2019t realize before how easy it was to get re-infected. I had never thought about it before it happened to me. All of this happening to me in a rural area, I also experienced stigma just attempting to talk to doctors. It was sort of like they thought if you used drugs, you were a dirty drug addict, and you were a bad person. If you even talked about hepatitis C, that was the response. It was really hard to get over that and go in with questions and talk about what was going on with me. But now, because of what happened to me, I\u2019m not only helping myself but others who are walking in similar shoes that I walked in with addiction and hepatitis C. I started volunteering and doing work with the Ryan White Program. Everything really just came together for me. I\u2019m now doing HIV, hepatitis C, and syphilis testing in the community. I\u2019m navigating people through the process that I went through to get the treatment that they need.<\/p>\n

Depression really played a big part in my story. It was one of the hardest things I had to deal with and having support can make such a difference. Because in the past someone showed me support, I started taking better care of myself. I started dreaming again and thinking about the future and what that might look like. Now I\u2019m in the position to be that helping hand for others. It\u2019s amazing, it\u2019s empowering, and sometimes I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m where I am now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My name is Thomas, and I was cured of hepatitis C. Here\u2019s my story: It\u2019s been almost 30 years since I was diagnosed with both HIV and hepatitis C. At that time, I was using substances and participating in intravenous (IV) drugs. That didn\u2019t last long, so I didn\u2019t think much about it, but when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":14918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[37,50,23],"class_list":["post-14917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-highlight","tag-personal-story","tag-viralhepatitis"],"modified_by":"DDP PR Coordinator","yoast_head":"\nThomas' Personal Story - Disease Prevention<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/disease-prevention\/2026\/05\/28\/thomas-personal-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thomas' Personal Story - Disease Prevention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My name is Thomas, and I was cured of hepatitis C. 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