Theme 4: Engaging in HCV treatment to improve health
headaches, anxiety, shakes, HCV infection, pain, hepatitis C, sweats, hepatitis
DISEASE, HEPATITIS C, HEPATITIS
Several participants were motivated to pursue HCV treatment because they viewed HCV infection as a lethal disease, and they personally knew friends and family who died of HCV:I don't want to pass hepatitis C to nobody… I know that hepatitis C is hard. I got family, my niece passed away [from] hepatitis C… I [want] to get the treatment for hepatitis C.Participants recounted stories of prior HCV treatment regimens (i.e., interferon) that were arduous and highly ineffective. The education that was provided during the study informed them of modern HCV treatment regimens with high efficacy and minimal side effects, potentiating an HCV cure and hope for the future:Before I knew they had a cure for HCV, I thought I was doomed… If I still got hepatitis C, I am not going to last long. It makes no sense to see a doctor because the doctor is not going to do anything for me. Until you guys [study personnel] showed up… I was tired, I was fatigued. It was a lot of symptoms going on with me.Furthermore, participants commented on how rapidly HCV treatment, once initiated, improved their symptoms and quality of life:[It helped] tremendously, within a month and a half, I started seeing results. I started feeling different… My legs are moving faster… I feel amazing.Achieving an HCV cure enabled participants to start a new beginning in their lives by ‘planning new goals with a brighter outlook’. The HCV cure also enabled participants to improve their self‐confidence, ‘It's definitely made me feel a lot better, more confident’. Increased energy and newfound self‐confidence enabled people who achieved a cure to pursue many new directions. As one participant commented:HCV treatment was a catalyst for getting life under control and for changing many things in my life. I'm just glad that they were able to find a cure for it.Several participants explained specifically how the cure affected the rest of their lives. For example, one participant appreciated the cure as it decreased anxiety:I don't have the thought in my head anymore that I got this thing in my body that's killing [me]… I think it is a godsend. In eight weeks, you could help somebody prolong their life.Another participant shared his/her newfound joy in life after having been cured of HCV:I wake up every morning happy, joyful, [drug‐]free. I wake up not worrying about the pain, the suffering, the shakes, the headaches, the sweats, the disillusions, the lies that go through my mind of getting one more [high]. This programme granted that. Freedom in choices for me today!Several participants discussed the importance of supporting and providing others the chance to use the facilitated telemedicine model. Participants discussed sharing their successes with others via ‘a peer pipeline [and] spreading the word about HCV treatment to help others, anything to help mankind’. The peer pipeline was emphasized as a way to inform others of the importance of an HCV cure:I think [by getting] the word out, a lot more people would do the treatment… I have five people who have reached out to me that want to get treatment.Participants vocalized their understanding of the need to speak freely about HCV treatment, ‘Telling others about treatment; awareness of having knowledge [that can] be disseminated to benefit others’.Besides the peer pipeline, participants recommended not only expansion of facilitated telemedicine to other methadone programmes, but to other substance use treatment programmes as well.A lot of people with this problem are not on methadone, they're not aware of it, or their methadone clinic doesn't deal with it. There [should be] a way [for] methadone [or] addiction systems [to share] the fact ‘Hey, there is something you could do’.Not only did participants recount their own experiences of attempting to convince family members, peers, and their programmes of HCV treatment benefits, some participants viewed an HCV cure as a steppingstone toward a career change. One participant commented, ‘I'm trying to become a counsellor because I feel I have so much to offer’.