Is there anyone here on forum who had recovered from HepB (whether acute or chronic) and planned to have kids and eventually had kids without infecting mother or kids?
If yes, what precautions did one take !? And how long did you wait after turning HBsAg/HBVDNA negative ?
I haven’t recovered from chronic hep b , but I had a child a year and a half ago. At the time my viral load was around ~20-300iu/ml and was not given anti virals because it was too low. My baby was given the immunoglobulin shot within 12 hrs and the first vaccine. Then the subsequent ones were given according to vaccine schedule. My baby was protected and tested HBV negative.
The main concern is during delivery so if you have hep b during pregnancy but recover and test negative before you give birth - you and baby should be fine.
I was also told I could breast feed without worry even with a positive viral load and I did.
Thanks for sharing your story. I am a male and particularly looking for some details from Male members on this forum.
Hello,
I was diagnosed with chronic Hep B about 3+ years ago (my mom is also a carrier) and now on daily antivirals to manage my condition.
At the time of my diagnosis, my son was almost 5 and my daughter was almost 2.
To the best of our doctor’s knowledge, both of my kids and my wife are Hep B negative. Most likely since they all had received the vaccine upon birth, whereas I did not (I grew up in the far east and we’re now living in the US).
Not sure if this helps, but figured I’d share.
Y
Thank you for your story. I am Just confused how long to hold on after recovery so that things are safe ! I understand vaccinating the wife is the need but still I want to be completely sure of things…I don’t want to put her in any trouble because of me.
As mentioned in other threads, if you are HBsAg-negative there is practically zero chance to transmit HBV to your wife or kids. Generally the transmission is from the mother to neonate during birth, so it is doubly safe for the child.
HBV DNA-negative is sufficient to say you are at very low risk of transmitting the infection.
HBsAg-negative give you even greater confidence that your viral DNA will not reappear over time/in between blood tests.
Only exception to this here could be Occult form of HBV ?
So now on I may not need to get HBVDNA PCR test get done instead HBsAg test would be sufficient?
I think most experts would agree that HBsAg test is more than sufficient if you are anti-HBs positive and HBsAg-negative.
I also am not aware of any cases of transmission from occult HBV. Perhaps other @HealthExperts or @ScienceExperts could provide their suggestions?
Thomas
The risk of transmission is linked to HBV DNA levels that are usually very low to undetectable in HBsAg negative patients. The only exception is the so called “false negative HBsAg” which is characterized by significant HBV DNA levels despite negativity of HBsAg. It is a very rare situation due tot HBsAg mutants that do no react with the current standard test
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Generally if you have anti-HBs antibodies, it is very hard to become re-infected. The most likely cause of HBV DNA becoming positive again after HBs-loss is reactivation.
I guess you could determine this by sequencing the virus, but there is no routine clinical test to do tell the difference. Genotype testing may be able to do it if the second infection is another genotype, but may miss cases where you’re reinfected with the same HBV genotype.
TT
Alright. Can you please quote any study that can confirm if HepB may remain active/ infectious even after 4/5 months?
If you are HBs-negative, it is really really rare for the infection to reactivate without any sort of immunosuppression. There are only 2 cases that I have found in all my searching and both say they only report it because it is so surprising:
2 reported cases out of the millions and millions of people with Hepatitis B means it probably isn’t something worth worrying about too much.
Thomas
Thanks Thomas…but I was referring to survivability of virus on surfaces? Will it remain infectious even after 4/5 months on things or surfaces?
Oh, I thought we had already talked about this here: Constant fear of transmitting the virus - #11 by ThomasTu. In the same paper they show the virus is fairly stable at 4 degrees for 6 months and then degrades (100-fold decrease in infection after 9 months). This is probably one of the best case scenarios for Hep B survivability.
To my knowledge, there has not been any similar experiment for room temperature surface survivability with such long periods.
Thomas
Please sir, how long have you had the hepatitis B, and what drugs where you taking
Hey there, when you say "if you are HBsAg-negative there is practically zero chance to transmit HBV to your wife or kids" does HBs-Ag indicate the Hepatitis B Core AG IgM reading, or the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen II reading? For example, my Hepatitis B Core AG IgM is non-reactive, however, my Hepatitis B Surface Antigen II is reactive.
Do I fall into that statement of yours where you state “if you are HBsAg-negative there is practically zero chance to transmit HBV to your wife or kids.”
Appreciate it!
Dear @Anon2023,
HBsAg means Hepatitis B Surface Antigen. If this is reactive, then there is theoretically some chance of transmission. How big this risk is depends on your viral load (HBV DNA level).
Thomas