Fear of infecting others

Just diagnosed or new to the community
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Hello All,

Thanks @ThomasTu for creating this community and all other active contributors to serve for this community. May god bless you all for your selfless noble deeds.

This is my first post, but i read many posts that help to clarify my doubts and have knowledge about Hep B.

I am a 35 years old man, married and living with my family in India. I came to know that I am infected with Hep B when I went for plasma donation. I was very much afraid until i see test results of my immediate family members. With God’s grace my family members are not infected with Hep B. I felt relieved upto good extent.

But, I am still worried about infecting others unknowingly. India is much crowded unlike western countries, humidity is high in most parts of the country. I understand transmission won’t happen easily through sweat, tears after reading some posts from this community.

I am afraid to spreading others through their mucus by these things

  1. I have acnes on my face and small amount of blood/pus come out. Sometime acnes break without my knowledge. I touch my face with my palms unknowingly at outdoors. Am afraid about touching someone else with my palm that leads to infecting them.
  2. Cuticle peels around my finger nails.I noticed there’s a minute liquid when i peel cuticles deeply. Would that cause any infection especially when shaking hands at workplace. Am very much hesitant about touching something in supermarkets, apparel shops due to fear of transmitting hep b. Am using hand sanitizer and washing my hands before them whenever possible.
  3. I have mouth ulcers and I drool during my sleep. Afraid about taking juice, coffee and food from restaurants when there are mouth ulcers. Am afraid that hep b infection may happen from pillows and bedsheets when i stay in relatives/friends place and hotels. Am avoiding staying out for this reason though I love to go outstations.

Hep B infection impacted my social life badly and going though immense mental stress about infecting others.

Please help me whether something can be managed in a better way.

My viral load is around 380 and tested only once. My HbeAg status is non reactive and Anti Hbe is reactive. My son’s Anti HBS count is 18 mIU/mL. He is 4 now. Will Hep B booster be required as he is very close to me at home. Please advise.

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Sorry for the long post. Look forward to viewing your responses.

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Hi @Sanjay1,
Welcome to the community and thanks for sharing. It is unfair to have the onus on you to prevent any transmission. It can be challenging. The scenarios you share could be a source of an infection given that there are possibilities for blood exposure. One thing you can do is be careful around people, practice frequent hand washing and other hygienic measures. I am unsure you can stop any of these scenarios from happening given that they are part of your life. Do the best you can and be extra careful so other people are not exposed. This is not something you should be dealing with if everyone was vaccinated, but that is not the case. So we have to do our part trying to avoid any transmission from occurring while trying to live with this virus. It is a lot to ask of HBV patients.

Most restaurants sanitize their plates, cups and utensils such as spoons, fork etc., after each usage, so I am unsure that should be a concern. That said I don’t know much about what restaurants in your area do. It will be unfair to ask that you carry your own cups, plates and utensils around. It is hard, however I hope restaurants use standard practice measures to sanitize the utensils they use for their guests.

I am sorry, I don’t have a direct answer to your questions as the scenarios described are complex to provide a yes or no answers. I hope this helps and others will chime in soon. Best, Bansah1

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Thanks @Bansah1 for your kind words.

I agree that all the things are part of one’s daily life. My day is terrible if i come across any situations and they are beyond my control. This leads to guilt, anger, anxiousness for the entire day.

I dont doubt about sanitization process. All I am concerned only about people who dispose and wash utensils in restaurants , friend’s/relative’s house as small cuts are very common on palms.

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We can only do so much or control what we can, so try not to be too hard on yourself. In many restaurants washers wear gloves when handling dirty dishes. At a friend’s house, I don’t know if you could do the dishes, use disposable utensils or ask them to place them in hot water for a some few minutes before washing them. It is complicated. However, there must be an opening on the person washing the dishes and some blood must be present for transmission to occur. This is less likely to happen. I know you are careful and doing your best, which is all you can do in this situation. Take it easy on yourself. It is not our fault that we cannot do it all. Thanks, Bansah1

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Dear @Sanjay1,

Thank you for sharing your experiences and sorry to hear about how stressful it has been. I would like to reassure you of some things:

  1. Your very low viral load means the risk of transmitting to others is very low. Just to put this in perspective there has never been a recorded case of transmission between health care workers doing invasive procedures and patients (an event with high risk of accidental fluid exchange) has ever been reported even with 50-times higher viral load levels (Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections in health care workers (HCWs): guidelines for prevention of transmission of HBV and HCV from HCW to patients - ScienceDirect)… When combined with these low risk events that you mention (surface contact and small amounts of blood), the risk of transmission is negligible.

  2. Your son has protective levels of antibody if it is above 10 mIU/mL. In these cases, they are considered completely protected against any exposure to HBV.

  3. Please know you are not the only one going through this and perhaps it might be worthwhile reading the other threads about this.

Hope these help,
Thomas

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Thanks a lot @ThomasTu for your response. Definitely It helps.

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Hi Thomastu,

I’m Hepatitis B positive, should I regularly monitor my children and husband antibody levels to get them infected by this , or there is no need of any tests for them as they are vaccinated?

Please reply it helps me a lot, everyday I’m dying in the fear of spreading the virus to people around me, whenever I think about this I’m getting into tears.

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They don’t need ongoing monitoring. If you wait a few months after they have completed the vaccine series, and then do an antibody test, that should be sufficient. There is a small chance (~5%) that they may not respond to the vaccine after 3 doses, in which case the recommendation is to try a booster shot. But if they’ve responded well to the vaccine, the protection should last a lifetime.