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Avatar universal

false positive?

I recently gave blood on 10/19 and received a letter in the mail on Saturday stating the I had/have Hepatitis C.  They also did the RIBA HCV and I was positive for that too but negative on the NAT.  This came as a complete shock to me and has been reeking havoc on me since.  I went today to my doctor and got a lot of blood taken so they can retest me and test for other things.   The wait for results makes me want to throw up.  Is there a way that the blood drives test were a false positive?  I gave written permission for my PCP to request my test, but the wait is still too long for me to wait and wonder alone.  Could they have mistaken my results with someone else's?  Are blood drives (its was done by an area hospital) extremely strict and careful with their donations?  I'm so confused and scared and dont know what to do
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Avatar universal
With a Pos Riba, you were definitely exposed to Hep C at some time in your past.

The neg Nat (Nucleic Acid Test) means your immune system fought off the virus

without treatment.  That is GREAT news for you.  Anyone going through treatment

would give up an organ for that.  you are left with antibody to Hcv.  This is NOT

a health concern but you will not be able to donate blood.  You will have the

antibody for a LONG time, maybe the rest of your life, though some eventually

lose the antibody after 20 years or so.
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Avatar universal
relax. trinity posted some good info. i agree looks like you may have been one of the lucky few that have contact with the disease but their body was able to fight it off.

Best of luck with the follow-up test
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Avatar universal
NAT allows very small amounts of genetic material, such as DNA and RNA, to be detected by a process of massive copying of a gene fragment. The systems permits highly sensitive detection of HCV RNA.  With the NAT being negative, and the RIBA being positive it looks like you were exposed to the virus but your immune system fought if off.  When that occurs you are left with antibodies only but they pose no health problem and you can't transmit HCV because you don't have the active virus.

More than likely the retest will be an HCV RNA by PCR and again, NAT was negative so the PCR will be negative too.

Trinity

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