Hepatitis B - DNA test

Posted By Dudley on September 11, 1998 at 09:03:41:







I am a hepatitis B carrier and I have the following questions:
1. My doctor told me that I can have a DNA blood test to find out the hepatitis B risk level.  This is because a new medicine which has been invented for treatment of HIV is also effective with hepatitis B and can suppress the activities of the hepatitis B virus so that it would not do any harm to your liver. Can you explain to me in details on this.
2.  I took some herbal medicine a few months ago and when I had my annual AFP test 3 months ago, it went up to 16.8 (normal range is 1 - 10), my doctor told me to stop the herbal medicine and one week later, the AFP dropped to 14, two more weeks later, it dropped to 9.3, however further 4 weeks later, it went up to 11 and I check again 5 weeks later, it stays at 10.7.  My doctor said, everything is o.k. I might have small inflammation of the stomach or I smelt too much of 2nd hand smoking.  CT scan done 3 months ago showed that everything was normal.  Can you tell me why and whether it is possible for the reading to drop back to the normal range?
Regards
Dudley