A 42-year-old member asked:
how do they test for hepatitis c?
2 doctor answers
Dr. Stephen Cheng answered
35 years experience Transplant Surgery
Test for Hep C: I'm not sure what you meant by taking chances. That aside, if a healthy person is exposed to hepatitis c and becomes infected with it, blood tests can often detect the new infection within 2 to 4 weeks following the exposure (hepatitis c RNA and liver enzymes). If a new infection is detected early, with current drug treatment, the chance of cure from hepatitis c is well over 90%.
Answered on Jun 10, 2014
9
9 thanks
Dr. Enrique Molina answered
35 years experience Gastroenterology
Blood: Blood test is routinely available.
Answered on Apr 30, 2014
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Dr. Arthur Heller answered
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Bloods/SONO/biopsy: Screen with eia (enz imm assay), confirm (+) with riba(recomb imm assay) and/or RNA (quantitative); genotype if (+) can determine duration of rx, and/ ... Read More
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A 46-year-old member asked:
Dr. Camilla Graham answered
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Antibody negative?: If you are looking at the hepatitis c antibody result, you may be seeing the signal to cut-off ratio. If so, this is a low value and means no hepatiti ... Read More
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A 31-year-old member asked:
Dr. Camilla Graham answered
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Antibody and RNA?: Most likely, what you are asking is why an hcv antibody test can be positive, while the follow up hcv RNA (viral load) test is negative. About 25% of ... Read More
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A 31-year-old member asked:
Dr. Gurmukh Singh answered
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What tests?: A person may have a postive result to antobodies to hep c but be negative for a nucleic acid test for hep c if there is no persistent infection with t ... Read More
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