What Does Being HBsAg Positive Mean？

When you have a hepatitis B infection, a protein called hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) shows up in your blood. A blood test for HBsAg can find this antigen. If you test positive, it implies you have the virus and can spread it to other people through body fluids like blood. Along with other tests, the HBsAg test is used to determine whether or not you have hepatitis B and if you are infectious.

A severe liver illness known as hepatitis B is brought on by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Hepatitis B infection can develop chronic in certain patients, meaning it lasts longer than six months. Your chance of getting liver failure, liver cancer, or cirrhosis——a disease that results in the liver's irreversible scarring—increases if you have chronic hepatitis B.Even if their signs and symptoms are severe, the majority of individuals who contract hepatitis B recover entirely. A chronic hepatitis B infection is more likely to occur in infants and young children.

Hepatitis B symptoms, which can range in severity from moderate to severe, often start to show up one to four months after infection.

They may consist of:

Continent pain

Fever and dark urine

Aching joints

Reduced appetite

Nausea and diarrhoea

Fatigue and weakness

Your skin and the whites of your eyes are becoming yellow (jaundice)

People can get the hepatitis B virus via sharing blood, semen, or other bodily fluids.Infection transmission methods with a positive HBsAg include:If you engage in unprotected intercourse with an infected partner whose blood, saliva, semen, or vaginal fluids enter your body, you might get infected.

Sharing needles: Syringes and needles contaminated with infectious blood can readily transfer the HBV virus. Hepatitis B infection is quite likely if you share IV medication supplies.

Accidental needle sticks: Healthcare professionals and everyone else who comes in touch with human blood should be concerned about hepatitis B.

Mother to child: Women who are HBV-positive and pregnant can infect their unborn children during giving birth. Almost always, though, the infant may be immunized to avoid contracting the infection. If you are pregnant or want to become pregnant, discuss the possibility of getting tested for hepatitis B with your healthcare practitioner.

Within four to six months in self-limited infections, HBsAg is gone (infections that resolve by themselves). Both acute infections (illnesses that appear abruptly) and chronic infections allow for its detection in the blood (infections that last for longer than six months).To differentiate between acute and chronic infections, other antibodies can be evaluated in addition to HBsAg levels, a person's symptoms, and other elements.DNA, which houses the genes required for viral replication, is at the core of the hepatitis B virus. Hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAG), a protein that cannot be found through blood tests, surrounds the DNA.In fact, HBsAg, which is a component of the "envelope" that shields the virus from the body's immune system attack, surrounds this. To kill the virus, the immune system is skilled at penetrating this envelope. When this occurs, surface antigen protein fragments are left in the blood-like debris and are detectable by lab procedures.After being exposed to the virus, your body will begin to manufacture antibodies against any of these antigens. At various times throughout the infection, these antibodies begin to form.

For a variety of reasons, your blood may be tested for HBV. There are many different test kinds, but the three that are most frequently included are the HBsAg, the antibody to HBsAg (also known as HBsAb), and the antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAb).These tests enable your doctor to determine if you might benefit from a hepatitis B vaccination or whether you have active or chronic hepatitis B and require advice, care, or treatment.If you are expecting, donating blood or tissue, taking immunosuppressive medication, or have end-stage renal illness, you may be subject to routine screening. If you belong to categories where HBV infection rates are greater, you will also be screened.

The HBsAg test focuses on the presence or absence of this biomarker. As such, it's more important to know if you are HBsAg positive or negative rather than focus on a "normal" result. Test kits typically measure a range of between 0.05 to 250 international units per milliliter (IU/ml), though some results may be higher. The HBsAg levels then correlate to your status as someone who's not exposed, who has been vaccinated or is in a recovery stage of an infection, or who is in a currently active state of infection.