INTRODUCTION THREAD: People affected by Hep B

Dear @Dan,

Thank you for sharing your story and experiences. It’s great that you felt healthy after starting anti-HBV medication.

Regarding your use of COVID 19 or allergies to fight Hep B, though I can see how it might make sense, the immune system is actually much more complicated than this. The immune system is actually very specific and a reaction against one pathogen usually doesn’t change the reaction against another one. In Hep B in particular, people with chronic HBV infection don’t seem to fare any better or worse against the common cold, or any number of other diseases.

Basically (and happy to be corrected by @ScienceExperts in the immunology field), the immune system of people with chronic infection basically sees the virus as “self”. Just as you don’t (usually) raise an immune response against your own skin, muscles, or brain, the body makes sure not to fight off the Hep B. When you do have an immune response against Hep B, it’s usually only against one part of the virus (e.g. HBeAg), then the virus adapts to HBeAg-negative to avoid it.

The point is, you’re very unlikely to raise the anti-Hep B response by subjecting yourself to fever and hives. You should take your doctor’s advice and take the appropriate medication when necessary. In particular, fever can be deadly if it goes up too high. Please look after yourself!

Dear @Tsbs,

Thank you also for sharing your story here and sorry to hear about your symptoms. That’s a great plan to get your LFTs and US done to find out what’s going on. You’re doing the best you can and you should be proud of that. This is easier said than done, but there’s no benefit from borrowing worry from tomorrow. You have done what you can do now.

For your information as well, there are many other reasons for deeper yellow urine. Probably the most common one is dehydration or not drinking enough water. No need to go crazy with drinking litres and litres, but just ensure that you are drinking when thirsty (your body almost always does a pretty good job at telling you, you just need to listen to it).

There are also other reasons for abdomen pain as well (e.g. as discussed in Upper right quadrant pain, I am feeling a sharp pin pain in my stomach. Why am I feel thay, and Titling feet and pain on the righ shoulder blade), so don’t necessarily take this as a bad sign.

Hope this helps.

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