TOPIC:

A friend's daughter had tested positive for HCV antibodies as a small child.....(obviously, from the infected mother), and then tested PCR negative before adolescence.

Question: Will she still return a positive antibody test? She is undergoing tests for medical employment and is worried about the result causing her issues.

TIA.

Hello Johnboy,

Maybe. Antibody levels fade over time so it's quite possible they won't be detectable if they were just maternal antibodies (which would make sense given you would not expect a child to clear Hep C - they don't clear Hep B even though over 90% of adults do clear Hep

The easy way to find out is just do the test and see. I'm happy to do it and the result won't be going anywhere if there are confidentiality concerns.

Thanks James. The lady in question is in the US, so I suppose, to do a test on herself might be expensive, I will let her know the best course of action........ fore armed is fore warned.

Other than the stigma around Hep C the technical issue is that for exposure prone procedures somebody who is PCR positive is a risk, but antibody positive and PCR negative is not a risk.

If there are no antibodies the question never comes up, so knowing that is a good idea, and if positive being armed with a negative PCR is likely to be useful.