What Is the Connection Between Hepatitis C and HIV?

Hepatitis C antibodies are produced by human immune cells in response to hepatitis C virus infection. Antibodies circulate in the blood and their presence is often detected. The hepatitis C antibody test is to determine the existence of the previous virus by testing the presence of hepatitis C antibodies, rather than the virus itself.

Hepatitis C antibody

Hepatitis C antibodies are produced by human immune cells in response to hepatitis C virus infection. Antibodies circulate in the blood and their presence is often detected. The hepatitis C antibody test is to determine the existence of the previous virus by testing the presence of hepatitis C antibodies, rather than the virus itself.

Chinese name

Hepatitis C antibody

Foreign name

anti-HCV HCVAb

Cause

Response of immune cells to HCV infection

Attributes

RNA virus

Main mode of transmission

Sexual transmission

What does hepatitis C antibody positive mean

Hepatitis C antibody is the surface antibody of Hepatitis C. Hepatitis C antibody is not a protective antibody. Positive Hepatitis C antibody indicates that there is Hepatitis C antibody in the body, and it is most likely the presence of Hepatitis C virus in the body. Hepatitis C antibody positive is not necessarily infected with hepatitis C virus, and many of the hepatitis C antibody positives are false positive.

Hepatitis C antibody positive has the following possibility. After importing a foreign blood product containing hepatitis C antibody, the hepatitis C antibody positive will be quickly detected after the import, but as time goes by, the amount of foreign hepatitis C antibody will decrease. It will disappear in a few months.

Hepatitis C antibody positive may also be the reason. After the hepatitis C virus invades the human body, the natural reflection of human immunity, the hepatitis C antibody produced by the immune system. If the majority of patients encounter positive hepatitis C antibodies, they must go to regular hospitals to test the genetic material of hepatitis C virus. If there is genetic material of hepatitis C virus, it means that there is a virus in the body. If not, there is no virus.

A positive HCV antibody does not necessarily mean that you have HCV. Many people have certain misunderstandings about this. In this regard, liver disease experts reminded that the most important way to know if he was infected with hepatitis C virus is to check whether there is hepatitis C virus in the blood. However, the currently used reagents are made using viral proteins produced by the hepatitis C virus gene. Therefore, hepatitis C cannot be checked directly. Moreover, because the amount of hepatitis C virus in the blood is quite small, sometimes it is not even detectable. This does not mean that there is no hepatitis C, it just means that the activity of the hepatitis C virus was very low.

There are several cases of hepatitis C antibody positive:

1. Hepatitis C virus infection: The patient has not been treated with interferon antiviral therapy, the hepatitis C antibody is positive, but the HCV-RNA is negative, and the aminotransferase and other indicators are normal. A positive HCV antibody at this time only indicates that he has been infected with HCV and has now recovered. No treatment is required, regular review is sufficient.

2. Hepatitis C patients: Hepatitis C antibodies are positive and HCV-RNA is positive. Regardless of liver function abnormality, patients can be judged to have hepatitis C. If there are no contraindications to interferon and ribavirin, antiviral treatment should be performed. .

3. Patients with autoimmune hepatitis: Patients with autoimmune hepatitis may also have hepatitis C antibody-positive. At this time, the patient cannot be explained based on hepatitis C antibody-positive to have hepatitis C. The relevant indicators of the immune system can be further checked. And HCVRNA quantification.

4. False positive: The interference of rheumatoid factor (RF), hyperimmunoglobulinemia, etc. can also cause hepatitis C antibody positive, and should be combined with risk factors such as blood transfusion history, intravenous drug use history and HCV-RNA to determine whether it is C Hepatitis patients.

5. Elimination of errors: Multiple inspections should be made to eliminate detection errors.

Is hepatitis C antibody positive protective

Hepatitis C antibodies are not protective. In the early stages of infection with hepatitis C virus, patients did not feel any discomfort. After an incubation period of about 2 months, only about a quarter of patients will develop symptoms such as poor appetite, fatigue, and jaundice, while most patients will not feel anything. Moreover, it takes about 20 years after infection to develop cirrhosis. Therefore, many people do not even know that they have been infected with hepatitis C virus.

After the virus quietly "hides" in the body for 5-12 weeks (on average, about 8 weeks), at this time, antibodies related to hepatitis C virus can be detected in the patient's blood. However, this antibody does not have the effect of neutralizing or eliminating the invading virus, that is, this antibody is not protective, which is different from hepatitis B. Therefore, a positive hepatitis C virus antibody does not mean that you will not get hepatitis C anymore, it just means that the patient has been infected or is already infected with hepatitis C.

Is Hepatitis C antibody positive?

The blood of hepatitis C antibody-positive patients contains hepatitis C virus and is contagious. A prospective study of the incidence of hepatitis C in 383 patients undergoing cardiac surgery after receiving 5,150 blood products between 1984 and 1986 was conducted. As a result, 6 of the 9 patients with hepatitis C after transfusion (67 %) Hepatitis C antibody was positive, and of the 374 patients who did not develop hepatitis C, only 9 (2.4%) were positive for Hepatitis C (P <0.001). Nine patients with hepatitis C after blood transfusion received a total of 151 blood products, of which 6 (3.9%) were positive for hepatitis C antibodies, and 374 patients without hepatitis C received a total of 4,999 blood products, of which 31 were positive for hepatitis C antibodies (0.6 %), P <0.001.

The results of the above studies show that the incidence of hepatitis C in patients with hepatitis C antibody-positive patients is significantly higher than that in patients with hepatitis C antibody-negative patients.

After the virus quietly "hides" in the body for 7-8 weeks, at this time, antibodies related to hepatitis C virus can be detected in the patient's blood. However, this antibody does not have the effect of neutralizing or eliminating the invading virus, that is, this antibody is not protective, which is different from hepatitis B. Therefore, a positive hepatitis C virus antibody does not mean that you will not get hepatitis C anymore, it just means that the patient has been infected or is already infected with hepatitis C.

Many hepatitis C antibody-positive patients are concerned about this issue: Is hepatitis C antibody positive infectious? Experts on liver disease say that hepatitis C antibody itself is not infectious, and that it is infectious is hepatitis C virus. A positive hepatitis C antibody only indicates that the body has been infected with hepatitis C Virus, if you want to determine whether it is infectious, you need to further test whether the blood has hepatitis C virus.

Positive HCV antibodies indicate infection with HCV. It is recommended to check liver function, HCV-RNA, liver, gallbladder and spleen B-ultrasound. Treatment based on laboratory tests. Hepatitis C is an infectious disease that is transmitted mainly through surgery or

Anti-HCV

Most people with HCV infection have anti-HCV in the body. Therefore, the detection of anti-HCV is valuable for the diagnosis of hepatitis C. Anti-HCV

HCV-RNA test

a) Qualitative: This is the most sensitive test and it is easy to detect the presence of the virus in the blood. Test results are either positive (meaning the virus is present) or negative (meaning no virus is detected)

b) Quantitative: This test measures the total amount of virus (also called viral load) present in the blood. The test result is how many "copies" there are.

Hepatitis C virus test

Hepatitis C virus antibody (Anti-HCV) detection. This is the most basic immunological test, and it is also the cheaper one. However, this method cannot tell whether the infection is new (in the acute phase) or long-term (chronic), or it has been cured. Antibodies sometimes have false negatives (infected but not detected) and false positives (not infected but the antibody is positive). Therefore, they should be comprehensively judged based on the condition and other tests. .

Hepatitis C virus examination. This is the use of molecular biology methods to check for the presence of viruses in the blood. The advantage of this method is that the results are more objective, but the price is also more expensive. It can not only know whether there is hepatitis C virus, but also determine the content of the virus, so as to provide a basis for the condition and treatment effect.

Time of test: In the early stage of infection, 70% of the blood of the patient was positive for hepatitis C virus antibody (Anti-HCV); after three months, the positive rate reached 90%. However, it must be emphasized that most people have no obvious symptoms after being infected with the hepatitis C virus. Within 1 to 2 weeks after infection, the presence of the virus can be detected in the blood, so the PCR method (direct detection of virus content) can also be performed after this time.