Dr. McGovern,

I received a hepatitis b antibody test ~19 weeks after a potentially risky encounter. The encounter was comprised of a shared sex toy. i was anally penetrated by a sex toy that was possibly used on someone else prior to it being used on me. IThe doctor only tested for 2 HBV antibodies he did not test for the antigen. He said the tests for both antibodies came up negative. Would this put me in the clear regarding Hepatitis B infection? he said that I should get vaccinated because both antibody tests came up negative. Is the result of my test affected because he did not test for the core antigen. is ~19 weeks long enough to take an antibody test for HBV? What about for HCV? I also tested negative for HIV. Should I go for anymore testing for any of these diseases?

Thanks.

Yes, I would also test for HCV and HIV to be certain those are negative. If you had acquired hepatitis B infection, by 19 weeks I would have expected your hepatitis B core to be positive...so since your surface antibody was also non-reactive, I would agree that you should have hepatitis B immunization.