Hello everybody, thankful to have found this helpful forum - hopefully somebody can provide me with some insight.
I got a letter this past week from the blood center I donated with last month. Didn't even think twice when
opening it, then saw that I tested reactive for hepatitis B Hbcab. Definitely a big surprise! My results indicated non-reactive for the surface antigen, which my research has led me to believe this is a good sign that I am possinly no longer nfected. I will be going to my doctor this coming Wednesday for some testing.
In the meantime, I'm very confused. I was donating plasma 2x/week for almost 9 months (stopped this April) and never received any kind of notice or indication of a positive result for anything. I have had the same partner for a couple of years and they've been previously immunized, so there is no possibility of having contracted it in this way. I have read that testing positive for Hbcab only can happen during the "window period" after an acute infection in the past 6 months, but as far as I can think I have no idea of how I would have contracted it in this window.
If it was from a previous infection from a long time ago, wouldn't the plasma center have seen this in my test results? I recall that every couple of months they tested blood specifically for blood-borne disease but I was never notified of a positive of reactive result.
The only thing I can recall in regards to feeling ill was in June of this year. For about
3 weeks I was burning up with a mystery fever, fatigued, naueseous with no vomiting, and awful headaches. I went to the hospital 3x and no nobody could find a reason as to why I couldn't break the fever or why I had the other symptoms. I just waited it out with tylenol every fee hours to break the fever. Is it possible I was battling a hepatitis infection?
Any ideas, thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated!
Post Edited (Jb726) : 11/24/2012 11:50:37 PM (GMT-7)