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Recent Blood test negative for hep c

In 1992 I donated blood to a blood bank. I was sent a letter that stated I had the hep c virus in my blood.  My current spouse of 5 years had chronic hep c genotype 1 with stage 4 liver disease.  He did the Harvoni treatment and by the blood test that he will take in June will be considered cured of the virus if it still shows negative.  With that in mind I decided to go and get a complete blood work up so that I myself could begin treatment thinking I had the hep c virus.  I was just informed yesterday that I do not have the virus.....completely confused as to how this is when I was told I had the virus from blood donation back in 92....any suggestions or answers as how this could be?  Possibly been misdiagnosed?
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Avatar universal
Lucky you!
Seems you were blessed with a good Immune System.
Thank mom and dad!
.....Kim
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2059648 tn?1439766665
That's great news.  Glad to hear you don't need treatment.
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317787 tn?1473358451
Congratulations! I am so happy to hear your good news!  I was also tested back in the mid 90's when the tests were not as good.  I got a false negative and went on to 2007 before finding out I had it.
When I asked the doctor how this could have happened he said the tests were not as sensitive back then.
I am really glad yours turned out for the good
Take Care
Dee
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Avatar universal
The tests are way more sensitive now. The blood banks just began testing in 1992. Much more experience now with much better tests. For example, in 1992 they did not do a signal-to-cutoff ratio test on your antibody test which tells you if you likely have a false positive. I would be confident if you are tesing negative now that is a true test.
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683231 tn?1467323017
They probably only tested you for the antibody in 1992. I think that was all they had at the time and even today that is all the blood bank will do is test for the antibodies.

Did you do an antibody test this time or did your doctor do a HCV RNA by PCR test which checks your blood for the actual virus?

If you tested positive on an antibody test but now on a virus test the result is negative that could mean you were once exposed but you were on of the lucky 25% who beat the virus on their own and didn't go on to be a chronic carrier like your husband and all of us here.

If it was just an antibody test again and you tested negative well testing technology had improved in 23 years so yes it could had been a false positive back then they probably advised you to follow up with your doctor.

I got a similar letter when I donated blood in 1990 and went to my doctor and have been followed at first annually and now every 6 months for liver enzyme testing that did confirm I had something attacking my liver. I do additional testing now that I have cirrhosis.

Anyway and either way congrats you don't have hep c great news indeed!

Your husband will still need to be followed for his liver cirrhosis (stage 4 liver disease) but at least his liver will maybe have a chance to heal or at least not get any worse but he will still need to be monitored every 6 months for signs of HCC (liver cancer) as he will still be art a higher risk for HCC due to his cirrhosis,

Best to you and good luck to your husband hope he makes SVR in June and is declared cured of hep c!

Lynn
Helpful - 0
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