Anti HBs Test Price in Pakistan: Rs 1,610 at Marham Lab

Anti HBs stands for hepatitis B surface antibody. It is the antibody your body makes once it has successfully responded to the hepatitis B vaccine, or once it has cleared a past infection. CDC explains that hepatitis B blood tests detect proteins indicating the presence of infection, and that depending on the results your doctor can tell whether you have acute or chronic hepatitis B, are immune to hepatitis B because you have been vaccinated, or were infected in the past and have resolved the infection. At Marham Lab an Anti HBs test costs Rs 1,610, reduced from Rs 2,300.

This is the distinction that sends most people to this page, and getting it wrong causes real alarm.

The two test names look almost identical and mean nearly opposite things.

So a positive [HBsAg](/labs/tests/hbsag-test-price) is the result nobody wants, while a positive Anti HBs is the result you are hoping for. One letter apart on the report, opposite in meaning.

If you are checking whether your vaccination worked, Anti HBs is the test. If you are checking whether you are infected, HBsAg is the test. Book what your doctor wrote.

Three situations account for most requests.

Checking that the vaccine worked. The hepatitis B vaccine course is given in childhood and often again before surgery, dialysis, or a job in healthcare. Anti HBs is how you confirm the course produced a response rather than assuming it did.

Employment and training requirements. Healthcare workers, medical and nursing students, and laboratory staff are commonly asked to show hepatitis B immunity before starting. This is the test that produces that evidence.

Before or after exposure. If you have been stuck by a needle or had a procedure you are unsure about, your doctor needs to know whether you were protected at the time.

Worth knowing because the two often get bundled, and because the screening advice is broader than most people realise.

CDC recommends hepatitis B screening at least once during a lifetime for all adults 18 and older, and screening for all pregnant women during each pregnancy, preferably in the first trimester. It also recommends testing for anyone with a history of increased risk regardless of age, and periodic testing for those who remain at increased risk.

CDC's reasoning is direct: many people with hepatitis B do not look or feel sick, so testing is the only way to know if you are infected. It adds that getting tested matters so that if you are infected you can get medical care and avoid spreading the virus to others.

That lifetime screening recommendation is met by HBsAg rather than by Anti HBs. If you have never been tested at all, ask your doctor about both.

CDC states that chronic, or long-term, hepatitis B can cause serious health problems including liver damage, liver cancer, liver failure, and even death.

It also notes that if you are diagnosed with hepatitis B, your doctor will test your liver for damage with an ultrasound, which produces an image of the liver using sound. That is a separate step from the blood test.

Hepatitis B is common in Pakistan and the vaccine is the single most effective protection against it. An Anti HBs test that shows no protection is useful information, because it tells your doctor you may need the vaccine course or a booster.

Anti HBs is reported either as positive and negative, or as a number with the laboratory's own cut off printed beside it.

A positive or adequate result means antibody is present and you are considered protected. Keep the report. It is commonly requested again for jobs, admissions and before procedures, and having the paper saves repeating the test.

A negative or low result means protective antibody was not detected. That does not mean you have hepatitis B. It means you may not be immune, and your doctor will decide whether you need vaccination, a booster dose, or testing for infection with HBsAg first.

Read the figure against the reference value printed on your own report rather than one from a website, since laboratories differ.

Take the result to the doctor who ordered it. CDC notes that after getting your results your doctor will decide on the best option for you, and that it is important to keep talking to your doctor about how to stay healthy and prevent spreading the disease.