STD screening...

[rxpharm]

According to the Health Canada website - the period of protection is not known since since the Hep B vaccine is only 20 years old. In regions where Hepatitis B is common, immunized patients have demonstrated protective levels of antibodies 15 years following their immunization shots.

Hepatitis A vaccine has been around for 14 years - and again they are not sure how long protection lasts - but the thinking is that it may last up to 20 years.

[manarak]

(rxpharm @ Jun. 16 2010,09:40) Manarak, if you want to be 100% sure about HIV, then make sure the lab offers NAT - PCR testing. This will determine if any virus is present so no false positives - but it costs more and I think only a few hospital labs have this type of analyzer, in LOS.

There are vaccinations available for Hepatiitis A and B - and it is recommended you get them.

Testing for Hepatitis C - is similar to testing for HIV, there is a test (Anti- HCV) that will detect if there are any antibodies to hepatitis C in the blood sample. This test cannot distinguish if a person has an active Hep C infection or a prior one.

If this test is "weakly postive" the follow up is usually an HCV recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) test which will confirm the presence of HCV antibodies and confirm if the Anti-HCV test was a false positive.

If it appears the patient has an active infection - then an HCV Viral Load test is done to determine how much virus is present in the system before treatment and is usually repeated after the treatment cycle to see how effective it was.

Wow, superb info here RxPharm

I got the Hep A and B vaccines done already.

I'm really worried about partners infected with HEP C and HIV, and knowing a way to have near-certainty with a short test.

[Chinaman]

(ALASKAN BEAR @ Jun. 16 2010,10:04) how long are the shots good for hep A  and hep B i had mine about 5 years ago,before a trip to Philippines.

I think that when I got mine back home back in 2005, I was told that they would last for 10 years. This figure should be rather conservative.

There is sth like a titer (AE) or titre (BE) test to check the level of antibodies still in your blood. According to those results you might need or not yet need another shot. I haven't had this done yet, though.

Perhaps rxpharm knows more on this. Isn't he our trusted doctor on board ;-)
Seriously, I always appreciate his posts.

CM