Should i be worried?

I recently donated blood, once in 2008 and recently in feb of 2009. I got a letter from the blood bank today saying I was reactive for the Hepatitis B core antibody and negative for the Hepatitis B surface antigen.
I'm 18 years old, never had sexual contact, and never used any drugs.
I think I have been vaccinated before but I'm not certain if I have or not.

[NashPred]

The Core Antibody indicates that you have had an HBV infection in the past and the Negative result for Surface Antigen indicates that you do not currentlly have HBV.

Most likely, you had the virus in the past and your body was able to get rid of it. Your core antibody should still remain positive for the rest of you life and will keep you from being able to donate blood even though you no longer have the virus.

[NashPred]

To answer the original question....No, you should not be worried. Your body appears to have fought off the virus on its own. Congratulations!

[kole56]

thanks for the news, do u think one of the many vaccines i've received was for Hep B and that might be what the blood test is picking up?

[NashPred]

I'm not sure if you have ever received the vaccine or not but the only thing that would cause the core antibody (anti-HBc) test to come back positive is a past infection of HBV.

The good news is that your surface antigen (HBsAg) is negative meaning that you are no longer infected.

Here is a link that will show some of the lab basics. This may help with understanding some of the results:

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Hepatitis/HepB-Introduction--Welcome-Page/show/34?cid=153

Hope this helps

[NashPred]

Nothing to really worried about though. More people than you probably think are immune due to a past infection that they never even knew they had.

Most adults who get HBV will clear it on their own and never even know that they had it. I think it's something like 1 in 20 in the US that have not been vaccinated will contract HBV at some point in ther life and 95% will clear the virus on their own....so it's not as uncommon as you might think.

You may want to consider having your anti-HBsAg tested just to verify immunity.