HCV and Occult Hep B

[bajawoman]

Does anyone out there know about Occult Hep B
At 17
I was dx with Hep B
just this past July HCV
I have been thinking I have had HCV for many years and it was never Hep B

I also have been very conrfused with my ALT levels being so low and have been searching around to find out
how that could be especially if
I have been infected for so many years still have such Low ALT levels

I am 62  Genotype 1b viral load 47,300,000 ALT level 12  and Neg for Hep B  but after reading this article
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/407935
I am confused
Can anyone help and What is Occult Hep B?
any info will be appreciated
baja

[bajawoman]

THIS IS A CUT AND PASTE FROM Co
A Hep B panel gives you seral results.  It tells you
whether you have it and it's active and therefore you are infectious.  Whether you have it but it is inactive and therefore you are NOT infectious and it's not causing any damage.  Whether you have a chronic infection and you're a "carrier" or whether you had it in the past and cleared it and you're now immune (vaccines would also show immunity).

It is a well known fact that in many cases, Hepatitis B hides in the presence of Hepatitis C.  That means that it may not show in the blood test (a serum test is a blood test).  It would show on a biopsy.  

The good thing is that the same treatment is good for both Hep B and Hep C.

However, the goal of treatment for Hep B is not to get rid of the virus but to put it in an inactive state.  And you may have done that already.  Many people do.  

Regarding liver enzymes.....they do not correlate with the amount of damage.  People who have alot of damage can have normal enzymes.....enzymes leak out and end up in the blood....the blood test measures them.  But when somebody has cirrhosis, the liver is sort of like leather.....so the liver enzymes are no longer able to leak out....and therefore, the level in the blood may be normal.

Thanks Co this made it very simple for me to understand
Baja

[GreatBird]

I had something very similar happen. When I was about 20 (1974ish) I got very sick and they couldn't figure out what it was (they being the doctors at UCLA student health). Apparently my SGPT and SGOT were normal, my bilirubin was not. They tested me for all sorts of things. I didn't have mono. I didn't have hep B, but it appeared to them that I had had it, although I was unaware of ever having it. (I tested positive for something they called the 'Austrailian Antigen'). At that time I heard them bandy the words 'non-A non-B' but they couldn't decide about that either. I finally gave up on them as all they would do was take blood and confer and never come up with anything helpful and eventually my temperatures went away, my energy came back and I was better.

A few years later I got a call from UCLA and they wanted a sample of my blood for some reason associated with my prior tests and the hep B thing and then told me that I did not have the 'Austrailian Antigen' and it's something that doesn't go away. Which just made me think even more that they were all crazy.

Because of this, I wasn't tremendously surprised to find out in 2002 that I had Hep C, but at the same time I don't think that 1974 is when I got it, although it is one of the possibilities.

Interestingly, I also have 1b (although my most recent test for the clinical trial typed me as a straight '1' which I didn't even know was possible). My ALT was always  normal, but a high normal, until 2002 when it started creeping up. Still it's never been above the 60's. My VL has usually come in low.

One thing, that article is from 1999.