Dear Dr. Parks,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. It is greatly appreciated. I was sent to an urgent care doctor and I was told that there is no point of having my ALT checked because some people might have the disease and yet their ALT is within normal levels. I suggested this to him the second time I went to see him when the lab results came out, a few days after the needle stick injury. I have yet to make a follow-up appointment. He didn't even told me about post exposure prophylaxis for HIV nor did he suggest that I should have a titer done for hep B antibodies. I told him that I read somewhere that if the titer is low, a booster shot should be given, which he proceeded to give me with out checking my titer.
I have great respect for doctors, I never had a problem with them until now.
Your input is greatly appreciated as always.
sky
Dear Sky,
Good day back to you.
At six months, if your serology remains negative, we can be over 99% certain that you will not seroconvert to Hep C positive. And, at one year the certainty of not seroconverting to HIV approaches 99%. At six months, the certainty of not seroconverting to HIV is >90%.
CDC recommendations for follow-up after exposure to HIV (+): "HIV-antibody testing should be performed for at least 6 months postexposure (e.g., at 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 6 months). Extended HIV follow-up (e.g., for 12 months) is recommended for HCP who become infected with HCV following exposure to a source coinfected with HIV and HCV." MMWR 2001 - http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5011.pdf
CDC recommendations for follow-up after exposure to Hep C (+): "perform follow-up testing (e.g., at 4–6 months) for anti-HCV and ALT activity (if earlier diagnosis of HCV infection is desired, testing for HCV RNA may be performed at 4–6 weeks)."
For clarification, ALT is a liver enzyme that is used as an indicator of liver inflammation (hepatitis).
Please respond with additional questions that you may have.
~•~ Dr. Parks
This answer is not intended as and does not substitute for medical advice. The information presented in this posting is for patients’ education only. As always, I encourage you to see your personal physician for further evaluation of your individual case.