Occult HBV

[Macola]

Hello everyone,
I'm currently waiting for a month to pass by in order to take the first shot of hbv vaccine. As I posted earlier, I'm only positive for Anti HBc (my last week results were done by abbot architect), ALT is 10, AST is 12.

I've read many researches on occult hbv, and as I said before, when I ask the doctors about the possibility that I might have it, they tell me that I am looking for a disease where none exists. I know they are ignorant, I know they don't want the patient to meddle in their work, and I also know that their ego doesn't let the patient be more right than they are. Nonetheless, I've read that in cases like mine, you can be given the vaccine, and the only way to say that you don't have an occult hbv is if the vaccine results in Anti HBs. In addition, if there are no Anti HBs after the vaccine, and you keep being only Anti HBc positive, then you DO have an occult infection. So, my question is:

If I do happen to have an occult HBV, how is it treated?
Can it be eradicated since DNA would be very, very low, and no HBsAg in blood? Can the vaccine eradicate it, or am I asking nonsense? Antiviral therapy?

I am only asking these questions because I just read the yesterday's post about the woman "me123456..." and got scared. And related to her post, is C-section better than the natural act of birth in order to lower the risk of transmitting it to your baby (of course, plus a vaccine)?

Thank you very much

[Macola]

THANKS again so much, I'll post my results in a month or so, after I get the first shot.

Wishing you the best health from the bottom of my heart

[stef2011]

how stupid, what's the reason to yell...they must print the type of test or machine and sensibility of assay in the report......many people is soooo stupid, they are afraid already of your questions because not competent.....

And what about the C-section instead of the regular/natural giving birth? Are you familiar with it?
sorry i really don tknow anything about it but i think i read it is safer to avoid infection but am not sure of this
anyway if tenofovir and vaccine is used possibility of infection to baby is really almost zero i guess even n case of hbsag mutants
hbsag itself is not infectious, the full virion is needed but if tenofovir is used there will be no virions around or extremely low

[Macola]

Thank you Stefano for your quick response.

Well, I wanted to be sure about architect, so I went to the lab after consulting with the doctor about the vaccine. The lab technician saw my results, saying: "Girl, HBsAg is negative, so no virus".  When I asked her to tell me whether my tests were done by architect, she started yelling at me and was very rude, telling me to leave the lab. After my insisting, she opened the record book and told me that my blood was tested with architect, so I didn't have the chance to ask her about mutant assays at all.

When I asked for a doctor who goes to international conferences, the staff, AGAIN, started yelling at me, telling me that I was rude for asking such questions and for implying that the existing doctors weren't competent (God forbid). So, no luck with my doctors.

And what about the C-section instead of the regular/natural giving birth? Are you familiar with it?

[stef2011]

anyway if architect with new kit was negative you don t have the mutant and probably just need a boost for hbsab production by vaccine

[stef2011]

the chance of occult hbv is very low but if you do have it architect with the new kit for hbsag mutants would have turned positive (with the new kit only, the old kit doesn t detect them all).

so if occult hbv is present hbsag is fully positive but this hbsag mutant is very weak to support hbv infection and the only damage can be damage to dna inside the cells i suppose.

the only experience i have is with pisa researchers, they said a mutation in the hbsag is not a bad thing, they had a lamivudine patient that had a mutation in hbsag (there can be many) and interferon fuly eradicated hbv, so my guess is interferon would get rid of it, while antivirals are totally ineffective and can even increase it

the vaccine can t eradicate it since hbsag is different than the one in the vaccine