Re: Weird hepatitis B test results



Rich Wales wrote:

I'm puzzled right now as to when and how I might have been exposed
to hepatitis B. I've never been sexually promiscuous or a drug
abuser, and I've never had a blood transfusion. Assuming for the
moment that I may somehow have had hepatitis B years ago, what
would be some other, less common ways I might have been exposed?

Hep B is very infectious (much more so than HIV or hep C, for instance). Any minor blood or fluid contact from someone who is infected can transmit hep B. So, if you were wrestling with a friend when you were both children, and he was a chronic carrier, if you each had some skinned area that came into contact, you could get hep B. We don't see this frequently in the US because it's unusual for children here to be infected with hep B.

--
David Rind
drind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.



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