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During routine hepatitis screening, HIV-infected patients are often found to have isolated hepatitis B core antibody; in fact, the prevalence might approach 80% in patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) who have no other evidence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Does isolated hepatitis B core antibody indicate that patients have been exposed to HBV and therefore might have or might develop some protection against reinfection? Or does it represent a false-positive antibody, meaning that patients are still at risk for HBV infection and are candidates for HBV vaccination?
Because past exposure to HBV should induce a rapid anamnestic antibody response to HBV vaccination, researchers measured early vaccination response in 69 HIV-in…