The importance of being earnest: Following up a low level hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) result

A24 yr old Lithuanianwoman (LA) resident in Ireland presented o the antenatal service of her local (regional) hospital for the first ime at 36 weeks gestation in July 2008. Blood was drawn (sample ate 08/07) and sent to the National Virus Reference Laboratory NVRL) for antenatal screening for evidence of infection with uman immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), nd hepatitis C virus (HCV). The sample was weakly positive in he HBsAg Abbott Architect (reading/cut-off: 0.29/0.05) and was onfirmed by neutralization in the Abbott Murex HBsAg assay. No