Will previous colon surgery cause a false positive for Hepatitis C blood test?

[knoxvol]

Hello Community!

Question: Can somebody tell me if colon surgery will cause a Hepatitis C false positive reading with a blood test?

I have got the following scenario:

December 1988 - Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, had nine (9) blood transfusions, then had a subtotal colectomy. The surgeon connected the small intestine to the rectum.

March 1989 - Blood test by an internal medicine doctor, Dr. S, returned positive for Non-A Non-B hepatitis. The doctor said it was Hepatitis C.

April 1989 - My then-gastroenterologist medical doctor, Dr. P, said that a positive Non-A Non-B was normal for a person that had had the kind of surgery that I had and that I had no hepatitis.

September 1995 - Hospitalized with a digestive tract blockage blockage. The hospital ran a battery of tests, I had to have abdominal surgery for adhesions. No mention was made of hepatitis.

1997 - A dentist, Dr. D, used novocaine for a crown.

1999 - A different dentist, Dr. N, used novocaine for crowns.

2017 - My current gastroenterologist MD, Dr. W,  staff took blood for tests. No mention was made of hepatitis.

2018 - A general practitioner doctor of osteopath, Dr. R, staff took blood for tests. No mention was made of hepatitis.

2018 - A dentist, Dr. F (my current dentist), installed crowns.

October 2019 - A medical doctor, Dr. M, (with C******t Medical) staff took blood for a routine exam. He wrote a letter and said that I had significant liver inflammation.

February 9th, 2020 - A different doctor office, Dr. A, (also with C******t Medical group) took blood for a routine exam.

March 1st, 2020 - Dr. A told me that I had Hepatitis C and that I must have gotten it from the blood transfusions some 32 years earlier. He took more blood. I told his nurse about the previous hospitalization and one of the above mentioned blood tests and that no mention had been made of hepatitis.

March 6th, 2020 - Dr. A's nurse called and said that Dr. A wished to refer me to a GI doctor.

I engage in absolutely no (0%) risk activity. The above dental offices and the blood tests mentioned above are the only time a needle has broken my skin.

Thank you in advance.

[CHIN_C]

You did not specify exactly which blood tests were performed. The initial screening test for hepatitis C is usually the ELISA screen, but more than 1 in 5 people who test positive do not actually have hepatitis C. Antibodies picked up by the test may have been triggered by infection other than hepatitis C (cross-reactivity phenomenon). People who have recovered from hepatitis C on their own may also get a false-positive ELISA test result. False-positive results may also occur in newborns who carry hepatitis C antibodies from their mothers. For these reasons, a positive anti-HCV test should be followed up with HCV RNA RT-PCR testing to confirm whether or not you actually have the infection.

[CHIN_C]

Many people with hepatitis C infection do not know how they were infected. Possible causes include receiving a blood transfusion before 1992 (when blood was not routinely tested for hepatitis C or other infections), sharing needles, syringes, or other paraphernalia used for injection drug use, needlestick injuries in health care settings, exposure to improperly sterilized tattoo/body piercing or medical/dental equipment, having unprotected sex with an infected person, or being born to a mother who has hepatitis C. In your case, the blood transfusions in 1988 were the most likely culprit.