Bad blood

Have you seen this? I watched it on netflix a couple weeks ago, and it scared the crap out of me!! (yeah..what doesn't??) I know it was a long time ago, but just the thought :sick:

No, but I'll look for it.

I always thought that blood products were safe and fully screened and that the issues of disease transmission of the 80's was basically over b/c they were so careful. That was until our ND had our hema run a hep B test on our boy after he had 2 bags of IVIG (he was a wise man). He tested positive for hepatitis B not caused by any immunization (they have a test that can tell if they are vaccine induced antibodies or outside introduction). Since he was not a drug user our hema and hosp. had a panic b/c they realized it meant he'd been given tainted IVIG. While we were angered as all get out (just one more thing his body had to struggle with at that moment), we used it to turn the tables on them. They brought in social services b/c we decided to move to a watch and wait (at zero count) and we threatened them with the biggest lawsuit of their lives. All hands flew up and we were invited out the door and on our own. Money talks - especially if they think they're going to lose it. Thankfully, the h-pathy used for his platelets also removed whatever traces of hep. b he had. I don't know how long it took to go away because we waited 6 months to re-test for hep B. Moral of the story, always be extra cautious. Blood and platelet transfusions allowed my MIL to live for 2.5yrs (well beyond her given prognosis) and I'm thankful for that. We were cautious back then to have it irradiated (against doctors wishes) to try and kill off every possible pathogen that could have been in it. I didn't think the same would be needed with IVIG and I don't even know if it's possible to irradiate IVIG. I might have to investigate that......

Yep - scary. But I think mostly it's just good info we can use to be wise and if needed take extra precautions when one does need those things (ie. can it be irradiated etc. to make it safer?).

I've had passive transfer of hepatitis B antibodies from IVIG. It sounds like that's also what happened to your son.

IVIG is made by taking the extracting the antibodies from the blood of many people. If some of those people have either been exposed to hepatitis B or had the vaccine to hepatitis B, then they'll have antibodies to it. It you then receive IVIG made from these people, you will test positive of hepatitis B for a short while after the IVIG, although you don't have and have never been exposed to IVIG.

It's only recently that Doctor's realized this could happen. I had this when I tried to get into a Rituximab study a few years ago. To get into the study, you had to have low platelet2013-02-17 082013-02-17 08s for a month and have received no treatments for a month. You also couldn't have certain antibodies to certain viruses, which might be reactivated by the rituximab. One of these was Hep B. When my platelets fell below 10, I was treated with IVIG, which brought them up for about a month. Then they tested for Hep B and I tested positive, so I was excluded from the study. Apparently, a lot of people with ITP were testing positive for Hep B, and that's when they realized that it was the IVIG.

It was scary and perplexing, because my family doctor was unable to replicate the results. Of course, when the IVIG was cleared from my body, the antibodies were no longer present because my body wasn't making the antibodies because I'd never been exposed to hep B or vaccinated against it.
Then they published the results of the study with the passive transfer of antibodies, which explained everything.

Lily

When they test for hep. B there are multiple tests. What they tested you for showed antibodies (which is one specific test) which usually shows antibodies either from the vaccine or disease itself. There are two other tests that show either active or passive virus load. We had both of those done. We had no active virus load but did have passive virus load. But it's nice to see they are at least realizing the antibodies can also be transmitted. The available tests for hep b are:

Hepatitis B Surface Antigen for Current Infection (active infection)

Hepatitis B Surface Antibody Long Term Test (vaccine or disease induced antibody test)

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Quantitative DNA Real-time PCR (Graphical) (infected w/virus but no signs of active infection)


Either way, it's good info to know about IVIG. Thanks for the heads up.