Thank you very much @ThomasTu and @availlant for further clarification. I have one follow up question, I wonder how can I reduce the HBsAg? Or what are way to help reduce it down? When HBsAg is high what does it mean to our health and liver?
Thank you very much
Sincerely,
Hopee
Dear @Hopee,
The persistence of HBsAg in the liver has no overall negative effect on your health but unfortunately has the effect of preventing restoration of immune control of the viral infection in the absence of therapy (functional cure). So the persistence of HBsAg during therapy with direct acting antivirals means that you will still have to keep taking these therapies. This is the case for the vast majority of people on antiviral therapy for HBV.
In some rare cases, there are people who achieve HBsAg loss and these people can have their antiviral therapy removed and in most cases will not need to take treatment anymore. We do not have a good understanding about what happens in these rare cases of HBsAg loss.
The single approved immunotherapy for HBV (pegylated interferon) can achieve HBsAg loss in a small fraction (~6%) of certain genotypes of virus (but not all).
There are many agents in clinical development to target HBsAg which you can find discussed in this forum.
The best approach (and this applies generally for all people with chronic HBV) is to eat well, exercise regularly and avoid drinking alcohol.
Best regards,
Hi Andrew, @availlant,
does this mean that a child who has been vaccinated at birth and completed three courses of the vaccination is still at risk of having the virus activated because they were born to a hep b positive mom? My childrenĀ“s result show no sign of any hbv markers. Are they still at risk?
Dear @Natti,
There are two issues in your question actually.
Many people are infected with HBV and subsequently achieve functional cure of HBV without ever knowing they had HBV infection (this is the most common outcome of infection with HBV). In these people, reactivation of HBV can occur if they subsequently undergo immunosuppressive therapy for cancer or autoimmune disorders or organ transplant. This is because the continual suppression of reactivation of HBV by the immune system is reduced during these therapies. Persons with inactive HBV infection (where there are still low levels of virus made in the absence of therapy) can also spontaneously reactivate their HBV infection as well.
HBV breakthrough following vaccination in children is rare in most ethnic groups (the curious outlier here is indigenous Australians) and most likely occurs by the development of HBV variants which escape the vaccine response and not from a specific depression of immune function. This is a specific issue with children who get their HBV via maternal transfer during birth.
If you child has an anti-HBs response > 10 mIU/mL (you might need to get a test to check this), I would not worry about the possibility of reactivation if your child is healthy.
Best regards.
Hi @natti,
Agree with @availlantās points above, and just want to add that if your children are negative for anti-HBc antibodies, then the risk of reactivation is essentially zero and should not be a worry.
Thomas
Thank you @ThomasTu , I actually thought there is no risk at all because they were never infected but it seems there is still no definite answer to that? No sign of anti hbc or anti hbe, just anti hbs.
Yes, this is our current understanding that if there is no anti-HBc there has been no infection.
TT
Hello guys. So I was first diagnosed for Hepatitis B in August of 2018. My viral load was 9,620 IU/mL, today my viral load went down to 976 IU/mL. Iāve never been on medication. My Hepatitis BE Antigen has always been ānon-reactiveā does this mean my hep B virus is suppressed? Or what does non-reactive means?
Since my viral load went down. Does this mean I have a chance of recovering from hepatitis B sometime in the future?
Thanks,
Mich
Helloā¦i would like to ask what does it mean if I have high Gamma T,but my GLT,AST is normal?
Dear @Kleekz,
It is difficult to say anything about a single test result such as this. Raised GGT is not very specific to a particular disease, but can be used in conjunction with other abnormal results to figure out what is going on. An isolated raised GGT is more difficult to assess and may not be of clinical importance, as mentioned in these opinion pieces from clinicians:
However, the best information for your particular case will come from your doctor who can physically examine you and take note of your entire medical history to interpret the result.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Dear @Mich,
Thanks for the question. It is common for HBV DNA levels to fluctuate over time, and a single timepoint of reduction does not necessarily predict recovery/clearance of the infection.
HBeAg non-reactive means that your immune system has mounted some response against the hep B infected cell, but as there is still detectable virus in the blood, it is not completely effective at clearing all infected cells.
Hope this helps,
Thomas
Hi , I am new to the group. I recently got tested on 01/04/24. My results came back abnormal so I retested on 01/09/24 just got results back Iām so confused. I have never been this situation before. So do I have hep b chronic or acute ? Previous results was negative 03/27/23 I had sleeve surgery on 06/12/23. My partner tested negative we been together the last 7 years. Like what am I missing. Can someone help me understand?
Hi @Shvonne93,
Welcome to the community. One of our experts will respond to your question soon. From the results it does show that you have hepatitis B, but I am not able to tell whether you have a chronic or an acute infection or explain why the last test was negative and you are testing positive now. Hang in there as best as you can, I bet this is frustrating you a lot. Your question will be answered as soon as possible. Thanks, Bansah1.
Hi @Shvonne93,
Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about your experiences.
To answer your question, the only definitive test for whether this is chronic or not is testing your Hep B again in 6 months to see if you are still HBsAg positive.
Thomas
Hello, I was wondering if an expert could help me understand my lab results. A little background, I was infected with Hep B as a child. I saw a specialist for about 10 years. I was medicated for about 6 months as a teen but stopped when my condition became better. I continued to monitor my condition with blood tests every 6 months to a year. I stopped going to the specialist because I didnāt have health insurance for a while. Currently, I am not seeing a specialist but my primary doctor is monitoring my condition with blood tests and a liver ultrasound every 6 months. As you can see my results seem to be increasing over time. The duty doctor was freaking out when she saw my 2/2023ās results and told me to re-test in 3 months. She stated if my result was over 20,000 iu/ml, she would refer me to a specialist. It went down but went up again over 30,000 iu/ml but my primary doctor never said anything about seeing a specialist. I just got my most recent results and it is more than double what it was 6 months ago. I am freaking out a bit and need help understanding the lab results. Thank you.
HEP B DNA, SER/PLAS, PCR
|Feb 24, 2024|71,100IU/mL|<=0 IU/mL|
|Aug 18, 2023|31,700IU/mL|<=0 IU/mL|
|May 13, 2023|14,100IU/mL|<=0 IU/mL|
|Feb 11, 2023|17,600IU/mL|<=0 IU/mL|
|Jun 11, 2021|1,090IU/mL|<=0 IU/mL|
HEP B VIR DNA, LOG, SER/PLAS, REAL TIME PCR
|Feb 24, 2024|4.85IU/mL|<=0.00 IU/mL|
|Aug 18, 2023|4.5IU/mL|<=0.00 IU/mL|
|May 13, 2023|4.15IU/mL|<=0.00 IU/mL|
|Feb 11, 2023|4.25IU/mL|<=0.00 IU/mL|
|Jun 11, 2021|3.04IU/mL|<=0.00 IU/mL|
Hi @Mae welcome to the forum, Iām sorry to hear about your concerns, Iām not an health expert, just a forumās member, Iām sure some health expert dr. @availlant or dr. @ThomasTu dr. @john.tavis will get back to you.
best Gregory
