Am I still carrying the HCV ?

[Hepcc]

Last month I got a call from the doctor's office saying that I tested +ve for Hepatitis C antibody.But my HCV RNA Quantitative says" normal is <15 iu/ml and mine is <15 iu/ml and Undetected! So now I am false positive for Hepatitis C.Doctor ordered " hepatitic function panel test " and that came back Normal.Doctor told me I don't have HCV & the positive antibody may be because of a cross reaction or may be an acute one & I don't carry the virus anymore,that was a huge relief for me!

But unfortunately recently I came across a article saying that even Hepatitic C patients can have normal hepatitic function panel and even the quantitative HCV RNA will fail to detect any HCV below 15 iu/ml .

NOTE::In the patient portal lab records when I checked for my results my dr has entered : HCV RNA NEGATIVE, NORMAL is <15 iu/ml and mine is <15 iu/ml and UNDETECTED . This confuses me , am I undetected?! Or am I still carrying HCV < 15 iu/ml ?!!

I can't take the Qualitative RNA without the Doctor's prescription.The Dr is already pissed at me for asking too many questions even after giving much assurance.

Is there any chance that I am still carrying the virus? I am very depressed now!!!

[gnatcatcher]

Hepcc, congratulations, your result is the very best possible. The "<15 iu/ml" is the sensitivity of the test: that means the test can't count fewer than 15 "hep C bad guys." However, it CAN still tell whether some hep C is present. If your body still contained a very small amount of hep C, the lab report would have read "<15 iu/ml DETECTED" -- the fact that it's UNDETECTED means it couldn't find any hep C virus at all.

The first test looked for ANTIBODIES, not actual virus. Anyone who was ever exposed to hep C will have a positive antibody test for the rest of his/her life. Someone who is positive on the antibody test then takes the much more expensive HCV RNA Quantitative test to see how much (if any) virus is still present. In your case, you don't have any virus. Either your immune system managed to get rid of however much hep C virus you once had or that first (antibody) test result was inaccurate.

Bottom line: you DON'T have hep C.

Gnatty