Help, is the virus back? Or just old antibodies?

[Madelief]

Hallo,
I finishes my treatment december 2015. Last control oktober 2016, was virusfree.
I am not doing well at the moment (burn-out) and felt insecure and did a bloodtest via internet which are cheched in a hospital by a doctor.
I just got the result that it is positive... I called them and they said that it is possible that is is because of the antibodies I made when I had the virus.
The rapport said: in the HCV IgV imunoblot was found: Core1, Core 2, Helicase, NS3, NS4, NS5.
They advice to ask for a next test hep c PCR in the EDTA bloed to know if there is a active virus now. I have to ask that then at my doctor but I didn't told him that I did this test . Can it be positive because of my antibodies from before?
Does anyone know this? I am bit in shock now...
Thanks!!

[gnatcatcher]

Hi, Madelief. You test positive for HCV antibodies because you had HCV in the past. For anyone who ever had HCV and got cured, the only test that will tell if they have HCV now is the PCR test.

You were still virus-free ten months after the end of your treatment. Unless you have recently engaged in risky behavior such as drug use with shared needles, which could give you a new HCV infection, you should be fine. The old infection was cured by the treatment, and the October 2016 test confirmed that.

Gnatty

[Madelief]

Thank you Gnatty!!!

[Lynn K]

One good test to give you a indication of new hep c infection would be a liver enzyme panel. In your liver enzymes are in normal range that would be an indication you are not infected.

Just to add anyone who ever has had hep c will likely test positive for antibodies for the rest of their life. Antibodies are made by your bodiy in an attempt to fight an invading virus.

An antibody test for those of us previously infected with hep c should not be performed as we know what the result will be that we are positive for antibodies because we had hep c in the past.