Thanks, those were all "best answers." I'll take some of that to my doctor. Appreciate your time.
best to everyone, David
Probably the donor had anti-hbc, otherwise the doctors would not worry about hbv. Anti-hbc means trace of resolved infection, so they did biopsy of the liver to check for ccdna and did not find it, but there is no guaranty that ccdna is not somewhere else, that is why they are worried. Also with the transplant people take immunosuppressive drugs so if hbv is there the immune system may not be able to fight with it. So stopping NUCs maybe a bit risky. The good idea would be to change for the drug with less side effects.
But I agree that the transplant is a special case and I am not sure even if immunization is allowed. Everything must be double checked with health professionals.
Yours is a very special situation. Epivir was taken just as a precaution. It is not clear whether you are even infected with HBV. The HBV antibody in the donor liver could be just from immunization. I wonder whether you should test for HBsAg and hbvdna, or even HBcAb just to see if you are infected? If you are not, I am sure you can discuss with your doctor about stopping Epivir.
Just my opinion.
Did you test hbsab quantity? If you have enough of antibodies >10 iu/ml ( but better 100-1000) you have immunity for hbv.
Can you get vaccinated again to develop more antibodies so that if you stop the drug and hbv renounces the immune system would response?
Anyway there is a newer drug Tenofovir that has less side effects and does not produce mutants, maybe you can discuss with your doctor switching to it.