Trust me I’ve went to a doctor and negative at 12 weeks antibody said is reassuring but reading these online forms online saying 6 months has me confused doctor knew nothing about pcr test
Any possibility of a false negative after 1/2 half months after exposure? Close to 2 months
From google medical news today article first hit:
“While it can take an average of 6 to 8 weeks after a hepatitis C infection for antibodies to be detected, it may only take 1 week to detect the virus directly by using PCR or other means of direct virus detection”
So yes the HCV RNA by PCR test is conclusive after one week.
The HCV RNA by PCR test is much more expensive to perform than the hepatitis C antibody test so normally the antibody test is run first and if the result is positive then the HCV RNA test is performed next to confirm current infection.
Did you have a potential risk where hepatitis c infected blood could have entered your blood stream through a fresh wet open injury?
The hep c antibody test is accurate after 12 weeks but it can take up to 6 months to be sure of hep c antibody test results if the patient has a compromised immune system for example in the presence of HIV.
The test you had is the HCV RNA test that looks for the presence of the hepatitis c virus not hepatitis C antibodies.
The HCV RNA test is accurate in a much shorter time. Normally a person who has had a positive antibody test is then tested with the HCV RNA to confirm if the person is currently infected or only possibly exposed at some point in the past.
The HCV RNA test is definitive . If you had a not detected result on a HCV RNA test you do not have hepatitis C. No additional testing is needed.