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needle stick injury at work

Hi there..

I am looking for some support and help and this website seems to be really informative.  I had a needle stick injury at work 4 months ago.  The patients blood was never tested.  I had initial test done for HCV, HIV, HEPb and HepA. all came back negative.  I had a HEpB booster injection at 8 weeks, and HIV test (negative).  at 12 weeks I have tested positive to Hep C,  but a qualitative result not quantitative (although not sure what test was used).  I am now awaiting further testing results.  Is there a chance that this could be a false positive and could the result have been affected by having a Hep B booster injection?

I am worried sick, I have been signed off sick from work as they wanted to restrict my contact with patients. and there are implications for the patients I have treated since the incident.  I can't tell anyone as I live on a small island and am worried about the gossip.  I am so concerned and would appreciate any help?

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87972 tn?1322661239
Good luck with the rest of the test results. Many of us in here request hard copies of test and procedure results, and open a medical file to track things. The definitive test for HCV is the ‘HCV RNA by PCR’ or some variant of this. This is available in either quant or qual format; the qualitative delivers a ‘pos/neg’ result, while the quantitative result is expressed as both numerical and logarithmic fashion. Either of these is very specific for infection.

If positive, you should also eventually get ‘genotyped’. This is the ‘strain’ of particular infection, and helps determine both the odds of success as well as the duration of therapy.

It’s somewhat comforting to know that liver enzymes remain normal, but keep in mind that many cases of chronic HCV infection are associated with normal liver function tests.

Typically, GT-3 infection is associated with roughly 70% treatment success; are you in Australia? GT-3 is fairly prevalent there…

Feel free to continue to ask questions and discuss options in here. For additional general HCV info, look through Janis and Friends; I’ll link you to their page for newly diagnosed:

http://janis7hepc.com/have_you_been_just_diagnosed.htm

Be sure to review the section ‘other HCV information’, located in the right hand margin as well. Additionally, here’s a page in Medhelp that will help translate many of the acronyms used in here:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/Common-Hepatitis-C-Acronyms/show/3?cid=64

This is also available in the lower right hand side of this page in a box titled ‘most viewed health pages’.

Best of luck and keep us informed—

Bill
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Avatar universal
thanks for the response Bill.

Liver function tests were normal with the exception of a mildly raised AST (30). kidney was Normal, clotting and FBC were normal. awaiting HCV viral studies but not sure of the specifics.  They did mention that it may be a false positive, so am clinging on to that for now (or burrying my head in the sand!).  

they did talk about treatment and apparantly in this area genotype 3 is most prevelant and they have 90% success rates.  so that is also good news.

it is a comfort to be able to openly discusss it with people as I am having to keep it a secrect at present, due to the sensitive nature of the injury.

regards
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Avatar universal
I am not really sure.  I think they had concerns about gaining her consent?  or perhaps that was the excuse for letting it slip throuh the net?  it really frustrating though, and obviously they now have a duty to inform the patient.
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87972 tn?1322661239
Hi there; sorry to hear of your dilemma. If the qualitative test was positive for HCV RNA, then it’s highly likely you are actively infected. Both the qualitative and quantitative PCR tests are highly specific for infection.

As you’re aware, I’m sure, HCV is vectored by blood, so if universal precautions have been in place, your risk for infecting other patients past or present should be minimal. We have a number of clinical health care workers that contribute to this forum that are also positive for virus; we even have surgeons that are practicing.

On the bright side, it appears you didn’t contract HBV or HIV as a result of this incident… that’s fortunate in itself. HCV infection can be problematic, but it’s generally manageable.

Do you know what other tests are pending?

If you feel the incident that occurred four months ago is in fact how you became infected, that suggests you’re in the acute phase of the disease; this phase lasts for six months from date of infection. There is a better chance of resolving certain genotypes of HCV when managed in the time period, rather than waiting until it becomes chronic.

Have you discussed treatment with your doctor yet?

Welcome to the discussion group, by the way—

Bill
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Avatar universal
How come the patients blood wasn't tested?
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