Hepatitis C falling in San Diego, but eliminating disease will take more work

Modern medicine can cure a hepatitis C infection with three doctor’s appointments and two prescription refills. For most, it is not a big ask to rid oneself of a deadly disease.

But for those without homes, keeping up with the required 12-week treatment regimen can be an overwhelming commitment.

Sitting on a metal folding chair at the edge of an empty parking lot in Balboa Park on a recent morning, Holly, a resident of San Diego’s nearby O Lot safe sleeping site, explained that visiting a doctor’s office miles away comes with significant risk.

A tent can never be fully secured, so leaving one’s possessions inside to go to the doctor’s office all but guarantees returning to find possessions missing.

“There is nobody that holds themselves accountable for your stuff, so it’s just hard for me to leave, knowing that,” she said. “Everything I have left in the world is in that campsite, and it’s easy for people to just walk right in.”

And yet Holly just completed her full hepatitis C treatment, not missing a dose over three straight months after a screening test detected her infection. Her friend, Chris, just started his second week. Like his companion, he said that because his infection had not yet progressed far enough in damaging his liver to start causing symptoms, there is pretty much no way he would...