{"id":14887,"date":"2026-05-19T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/disease-prevention\/?p=14887"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:37:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:37:58","slug":"jillians-personal-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/disease-prevention\/2026\/05\/19\/jillians-personal-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Jillian\u2019s Personal Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14888\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/HepC-Jillian.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/HepC-Jillian.png 940w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/HepC-Jillian-300x251.png 300w, https:\/\/www.vdh.virginia.gov\/content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/HepC-Jillian-768x644.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/>My name is Jillian, and I was cured of hepatitis C. Here is my story:<\/p>\n<p>I started using intravenous (IV) drugs, heroin, in the early 2000s. I was in and out of rehab and jail after being arrested multiple times for possession. I would go in and out of rehab and into methadone clinics. Eventually I was successful in my rehab efforts, and I moved back home with my parents. I tested positive for hepatitis C in 2004. Most of my friends from that time also tested positive. I don\u2019t know if they if they got treated \u2013 I don\u2019t talk to any of them anymore.<\/p>\n<p>I went through treatment for hepatitis C with interferon combination therapy around 2004. I had to go out on disability from work and was put on Paxil because of the severity of the side effects and depression from treatment. I was lucky enough to have health insurance to cover the costs. I thought about the irony of being an IV drug user and having to give myself injections every week.<\/p>\n<p>I cleared the hepatitis C virus after 8 months of treatment. Treatment was rough, but now there are so little side effects with current hepatitis C treatment. I feel like if more people knew how easy it is now; they\u2019d seek out treatment. Now it\u2019s taking pills for 8-12 weeks with mild side effects and no shots. While people may still have barriers to wanting to get treated, new treatments are a game changer!<\/p>\n<p>Since then, I\u2019ve remained drugfree with no relapses. I\u2019m now the mom of two amazing girls. I\u2019m attending Dartmouth and about to graduate with a master\u2019s degree in public health. I didn\u2019t get here the way I expected, but it feels right!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My name is Jillian, and I was cured of hepatitis C. Here is my story: I started using intravenous (IV) drugs, heroin, in the early 2000s. I was in and out of rehab and jail after being arrested multiple times for possession. I would go in and out of rehab and into methadone clinics. Eventually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":14888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[37,50,23],"class_list":["post-14887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-highlight","tag-personal-story","tag-viralhepatitis"],"modified_by":"katiestephens","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jillian\u2019s 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\/19\/jillians-personal-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jillian\u2019s Personal Story - Disease Prevention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My name is Jillian, and I was cured of hepatitis C. 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