Welcome Jawad_Ahmed,
Thank you for your story.
I’m glad you have found this group, and I’m also glad that you are not needing treatment. You also sound to have a positive attitude which is good.
Have a look at the stories of others in this forum and the other information so, you can learn more about looking after yourself and your liver.
I’m sorry your friend injected you. I hope you aren’t still friends. I had a mean friend like that. Thankfully not anymore.
Blessings
Dear @Jawad_Ahmed,
Yes, I join @Caraline in welcoming you to the community and thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us. I’m sorry about what you have gone through and continue to endure because of your condition. However, as seen in this forum, there are ways around it and support to get you through it. Glad to have you on the forums and it sounds like you have been given good advice regarding monitoring.
Please keep us updated on your status and feel free to join any of the conversations.
Thomas
Hi Jawad.
I join my colleagues in welcoming you in this great hepb forum. I personally understand what is going through your mind expecially fear of rejection which prevents you from sharing about your condition. Please remember your only obligation is to protect those around you. Otherwise, you can choose to keep it confidential as long as you don’t feel comfortable to share
Kinoti
Hi Everyone.
I am 39 year old and have chronic heb b without delta- agent. I am asian and curently living in Europe and have 1 child. I was diagnose when i was 21 years old when i was required to take medical examination for the job i was applying for. I was very sad at that moment and lost the job because i was positive. I was feel discriminated and feel anxious about everything.
Now I am in monitor of my blood every 6 months and fibroscan every once a year and not yet started with treatment. I have up and down alat and last blood check Alat is 33, and DNA is 12000, and fibroscan is 3,0 kpa. Based on my result should i start any treatment? I am active and not smooking and drinking. I am feeling good except I am easily be tired when I am working so hard.
Welcome to the forum, @Wonderer, and thanks for sharing your experiences. I’m sorry your diagnosis affected your life so much, but it’s great that you are monitoring your condition and found out before any liver damage had occurred.
There are many factors that go into the decision to start treatment (see here for the main discussion on the forum: Deciding when to start treatment), most importantly whether you want to or not. Within the EASL guidelines, treatment may be considered. Depending on how variable your ALTs are (e.g. if they go above 40IU/mL) it may be recommended.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Hi @Wonderer
Thank you for your story.
Did you read the link Thomas sent? Deciding when to start treatment
Are you seeing a regular doctor that has knowledge of HepB?
Blessings
Hi 
I am from Poland and I found out about the infection by accident. Before the hernia operation, I had a routine blood test for hepatitis B. I got infected probably when I was a child or teenager. Maybe it was during surgery on a broken leg, or maybe at the dentist. I will never know it. I was fully vaccinated against hepatitis B as a child and it happened to me anyway…I am over 30 now and I am have this probably at least from 20 years. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more, or maybe I was infected shortly after birth. Like I said, I’ll never know. I would like to share my research and results and get their interpretation and answers to some bothering me questions. I’m glad that I could talk to expert here and other get knowledge from other people experience. Greetings
[image]
Hi @BaRt,
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story. Your experiences are similar to many in this community, so I hope you won’t feel alone here.
Your image did seem to attach to your message, but feel free to write down your research and results.
Cheers,
Thomas
Thank you for your reply.
I will write down in chronological order my test results.
Year 2016 First test ever I was around 27 and have this probably from10-15 years
HBV DNA 432IU/ml
FibroScan Metavir F0/F1, 4,6 kPa (liver stiffnes)
Year 2017
HBV DNA 259IU/ml
Year 2018
FibroScan Metavir F0/F1, 4,4kPa (liver stiffnes)
Year 2023.02
HBV DNA 1,21 x 10^3 IU/ml
AFP 3,6 ng/ml (norms 0,0-9,0)
ALT 28 U/I
Ultrasound of liver (different device than previous FibroScan) 3,75 kPa (liver stiffness). Doctor describe this like F0/F1 in Metavir scale
Year 2023.08
HBV DNA 1,67 x10^3 IU/ml
ALT 38 U/I
AFP 3,1 ng/ml
I can also attach screens of this results in case that I missed something in interpretations of this findings
How it looks like from your persepective? I noticed that viral load has increased, and ALT is higher than in previous test. Howerer I don’t have knowledge how ALT was in previous years.
Dear @BaRt,
These are relatively small increases, but it is worthwhile to keep monitoring to determine if there is an ongoing trend towards increasing HBV DNA and increasing ALT (these are still within what is considered “normal” range in many countries).
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Hi all,
My name is Gourav Rana. You all can call me Rana.
I live in Switzerland Indian born. I got to know about my Hep B around in 2015 but due to lack of awareness and knowledgeable about the disease I ignored it for so long until now when I had a few complications and got to know really about it what is it and what does this sickness do to you.
Life has been a roller coaster since then and I have been to my doctor like 7-8 times and done all kind of test CT scan, colonoscopy, Gastroscopy I mean you name the test and j have done it. Luckily all good though I am taking antivirals and Ayurvedic medicine at the same time and it did a great job, have no idea how but in the first month my viral load dropped from 18900000 to 480 iu/ml.
But somehow recently my KPA shoot up a little from 7to 10 to which doctor said that it will settle itself give it a few moths. Rest is ok with ultrasound and all test, liver health looks good according to my Hepatologist.
I am on Vemlidy currently.
Hi, I’m from Nigeria, was diagnosed with Hepatitis B in 2018, I haven’t tell anyone expect my girlfriend. I haven’t started treatment till date too.
I have been reading a lot of tips from this site but I just joined this forum.
Hi, I’m in Kwara State too, is there a way we can link up?
I wonder if is there any natural ways to decrease viral load? I’m active person, I don’t drink alcohol etc. eat clean. What about add taking curcumin, lactoferin, resveratrol for example? What can I do in terms of my diet to make my health better/decrease viral load?
Hi group,am from Uganda. My doctor seems too reluctant to attend to me should I look for another specialist?
Dear @Temmason,
Welcome to the forum! Glad you found us and are finding it useful. There are ongoing threads for people in Nigeria here:
Hope these are useful to you!
Hi @BaRt,
Best to browse the supplement thread Lifestyle changes, nutrition, and supplements for hep b for the discussion about these.
Just to note, the Australian TGA (the FDA equivalent) has just recommended that people should not take turmeric supplements due to the risk of liver injury: https://www.tga.gov.au/news/safety-alerts/medicines-containing-turmeric-or-curcumin-risk-liver-injury
Dear @opa,
If you do not feel comfortable with your doctor and do not feel they are taking you seriously, it is worthwhile to explore other qualified doctors that you might have a better relationship with. However, depending on your tests, you may not require further treatment or only need occasional monitoring based on best quality recommendations in the field.
Thomas
Hi @Opa
What makes you say he is reluctant to treat you?
Do you mean, doesn’t want to put you on treatment?
Welcome @Temmason
Thanks for sharing your story.
Fantastic you are reading advice and tips from this forum.
You are in the right place.
Keep reading to increase your awareness of this disease.
Are you seeing a doctor and being monitored every 6 months?
Thanks Thomas for reply. I will definitely study this forum category [Lifestyle changes, nutrition, and supplements for hep b]
Aside form the diet: do You think covid vaccine could trigger higher viral load?
I was so sceptical about this vaxs cause I couldn’t find any study that included people with hepatits B in trials while testing vax or there were 5 people and for me it was like nothing.
So I decided to educate myself in vax and wait for other studies or other type of vaccine I could trust. So I was waiting and waiting. I decided that I will not take mRNA vax or vector ones cause for me it was too many questions without answers and doctors couldn’t give me answers to my questions.
I waited 2 years and pople around me were getting covid from left to right. Even few times the same persons. I wasn’t vax and also didn’t catch covid. Then apperad new type of more traditional vaxine: protein based (just like hepatitis b vax I also had (irony)). I got the vax and 2 weeks after second shot I catch covid. Could You imagine? I was like you gotta be kidding me.
So my questions are:
Hi @BaRt,
Some important information to guide your thinking…
Numerous large cohort studies in top tier journals have shown the the majority of SARS-CoV-2 infection is asymptomatic or very mildly symptomatic - just like other respiratory infections like influenza and other coronaviruses (there are at least 4 other coronaviruses we have known about before the recent pandemic which seasonally cause ~30% of the common cold cases reported). You can be infected by the SARS-CoV2 virus and be either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. It is impossible to know if you have been infected or not previously with SARS-CoV2.
It is also important to understand the just like influenza and other coronaviruses, the SARS-CoV2 virus mutates rapidly and can escape the effects of vaccines. This is the reason for the loss of activity with recent SARS-CoV2 vaccines and why the annual influenza vaccine is a mixture of 4 different viral strains which is changed every year and yet is still only effective in 30-50% of adults (based on CDC data). For other viruses where mutation rates are very low (measles, mumps and polio for example), vaccines provide > 99% infection and are effective in preventing disease (not infection) in people. HBV vaccination is also highly effective in preventing the development of chronic HBV infection.
While there are specific issues with overall population efficacy of vaccination with certain respiratory viruses, overall vaccination (especially with technologies proven very safe and effective over more than 7 decades) is an ESSENTIAL AND CRITICAL aspect of community based medicine. Especially in the elderly or otherwise immunosuppressed.
Developing symptoms following respiratory infection is a function of your immune health and exposure to previous closely related infections. This is the reason with the winter season is also called the “flu” season as it corresponds to the period of lowest immune function in the population in general.
With these issues in mind you should not think that there is necessarily any link between your developing symptomatic SARS-CoV2 infection and your vaccination with a standard protein based vaccine.
There is no data suggesting that vaccination in general is associated with increases in HBV viral load. If anything, the immunostimulation provided by vaccination or concomitant respiratory viral infection would be expected to reduce HBV viral load. These “crossover” immunotherapeutic effects have long been known for other respiratory viruses.
I echo Thomas’ comments here that in your case, the chronology of HBV DNA results does not suggest an increase in HBV viral load but normal fluctuation over time in the absence of oral antiviral therapy (which is good). Your liver function and liver inflammation status also appear to be stable over time (the wobble in all of the data you provided is normal) so there is no evidence of liver disease. I suspect this is why your doctor has not placed you on antiviral therapy but I encourage you to continue the discussion with your doctor about this.
Best regards,
Andrew