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In November 2015, Anderson publicly announced that the treatment had worked. She wrote on Instagram that she was cured and no longer had hepatitis C. She also acknowledged that access to treatment remained difficult or expensive for some people and expressed hope that others living with the infection would eventually receive the same opportunity. Multiple major news organizations reported the announcement at the time. Her declaration came more than a decade after she first publicly discussed the diagnosis. The health condition that had remained in the background of her life for years had finally reached a very different stage.
Anderson later provided more detail about the treatment in an interview with TIME. She said that her form of hepatitis C was genotype 3 and described the regimen as two pills each day for 12 weeks. After completing the course, she underwent testing and was told that the virus was gone. She expressed enormous relief at receiving that result. Her description makes the contrast with the earlier era of hepatitis C treatment especially clear. Years of carrying the virus had ultimately been followed by a treatment course lasting only about three months.
In modern hepatitis C care, physicians generally confirm a cure through laboratory testing after treatment. The medical term frequently used is sustained virologic response, meaning hepatitis C RNA remains undetectable after the treatment period and subsequent testing. WHO describes sustained virologic response after treatment as the basis for describing the infection as cured. This is important because a person’s symptoms alone cannot establish whether hepatitis C has been eliminated. Anderson said her post-treatment testing showed that the virus was gone. Her announcement therefore reflected the successful outcome she had been hoping for when she began the new medication.