HBsAg Test Price in Pakistan: PKR 1,330 at Marham Lab

HBsAg stands for hepatitis B surface antigen. It is a piece of the hepatitis B virus itself, and a blood test looks for it directly. That is the whole test, and it is the standard first step for hepatitis B.

The scale of what it screens for is worth knowing. The World Health Organization estimates 240 million people were living with chronic hepatitis B in 2024, with 16 million of them in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which includes Pakistan. It caused around 1.1 million deaths that year, mostly from cirrhosis and liver cancer.

HBsAg, Hepatitis B Test and Australia Antigen: The Same Test

If your slip says HBsAg, serum HBsAg, hepatitis B test, hepatitis B surface antigen or Australia antigen, it is one test. Australia antigen is the older name and still appears on some Pakistani reports and prescriptions.

It is what a doctor, an employer medical, a pre surgical workup, a visa medical or a blood donation screening will usually ask for.

A Positive HBsAg Is Different From a Positive Anti HCV

This catches people out, especially anyone who has read about hepatitis C.

The hepatitis C screening test looks for antibodies, which show your body met the virus at some point, possibly years ago and possibly cleared. HBsAg looks for part of the virus itself. If the surface antigen is in your blood, the virus is there now.

So a positive HBsAg is not a maybe in the way a positive Anti HCV is. What it does not tell you is whether the infection is recent or long standing, and WHO notes that laboratory tests are used to separate acute from chronic infection. That is what your doctor arranges next.

What Your Result Means

Take any positive result to a doctor rather than acting on it alone.

Hepatitis B Has a Vaccine. Hepatitis C Does Not.

This is the single most useful difference between the two, and it changes what you do with the result.

WHO states that hepatitis B can be prevented with a safe and effective vaccine that offers nearly 100 percent protection, that all babies should receive it within 24 hours of birth followed by two or three further doses at least four weeks apart, and that it protects for at least 20 years and probably for life. Booster doses are not usually needed once the three dose course is complete.

If your HBsAg is negative and you have never been vaccinated, that is a conversation worth having with your doctor, particularly if anyone in your household is infected.

Who Should Get Tested

WHO recommends that in settings where more than 2 percent of the population carries the surface antigen, all adults should be offered HBsAg testing. It also recommends targeted testing of:

• Anyone with signs of liver disease
• All blood donors
• All pregnant women, so that steps can be taken to prevent passing the virus to the baby
• Partners and family members of someone infected
• Healthcare workers
• People who inject drugs, people in prisons, and other higher risk groups

The pregnancy point carries the most weight here. WHO notes hepatitis B is most commonly passed from mother to child at birth in high burden areas, and that infection in infancy becomes chronic in about 95 percent of cases, against under 5 percent when it is caught in adulthood. Testing in pregnancy is what breaks that chain.

Most People With Hepatitis B Do Not Know

WHO reports that as of 2024 only 65 million people, about 27 percent of those living with hepatitis B, were aware of their status. Most people have no symptoms when newly infected.

When acute symptoms do appear, WHO lists yellowing of the skin and eyes, dark urine, feeling very tired, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Waiting for those is not a strategy, because chronic infection is usually silent until the liver is already damaged.

How to Prepare

• No fasting is needed for an HBsAg test
• Eat, drink and take your medicines as normal
• Tell your doctor if you have been vaccinated against hepatitis B, and roughly when
• Tell your doctor if you have been treated for hepatitis B before
• If this is a repeat test after a known exposure, say when the exposure happened

What Happens During the Test

• A trained phlebotomist draws a small blood sample from a vein in your arm
• The draw takes under a minute
• You may feel a brief sting and see a small bruise afterwards
• You can eat and drink normally before and after
• Your Marham Lab report is ready the same day and reaches you online

If Your Result Is Positive

Hepatitis B is treatable, and it is important to be accurate about what that means, because it is not the same story as hepatitis C.

WHO states that there is no specific treatment for acute hepatitis B, and that chronic hepatitis B is treated with oral antiviral medicines such as tenofovir or entecavir. Treatment can slow cirrhosis, reduce liver cancer and improve long term survival. It also notes that most people who start treatment must continue it for life. Hepatitis C is usually cured in a few months; hepatitis B is usually managed for years.

Only about 4.3 percent of people living with chronic hepatitis B were on treatment in 2024, so being diagnosed and linked to care already puts you ahead.

Your doctor will decide the next tests. At Marham Lab HBeAg is PKR 2,170, Anti HBc total is PKR 1,960, Anti HBs is PKR 1,610, and HBV DNA by PCR is PKR 4,900 for the qualitative version and PKR 7,700 for the quantitative one. Liver function tests are usually added to see how the liver is coping.

اردو میں

ایچ بی ایس اے جی ہیپاٹائٹس بی کا بنیادی ٹیسٹ ہے۔ اسے آسٹریلیا اینٹیجن بھی کہا جاتا ہے۔ یہ ٹیسٹ خون میں وائرس کے ایک حصے کو تلاش کرتا ہے۔

یہاں ایک فرق سمجھنا ضروری ہے۔ ہیپاٹائٹس سی کا ٹیسٹ اینٹی باڈیز دیکھتا ہے، جو پرانے انفیکشن کے بعد بھی رہتی ہیں۔ ایچ بی ایس اے جی وائرس کا حصہ دیکھتا ہے، اس لیے اس کا مثبت آنا موجودہ انفیکشن ظاہر کرتا ہے۔

ہیپاٹائٹس بی اکثر بغیر علامات کے رہتا ہے۔ عالمی ادارہ صحت کے مطابق دنیا میں صرف ستائیس فیصد متاثرہ افراد کو اپنی بیماری کا علم ہے۔

سب سے اہم بات۔ ہیپاٹائٹس بی سے بچاؤ کی ویکسین موجود ہے اور یہ تقریباً سو فیصد تحفظ دیتی ہے۔ ہیپاٹائٹس سی کی کوئی ویکسین نہیں۔ حاملہ خواتین کا ٹیسٹ خاص طور پر ضروری ہے، کیونکہ ماں سے بچے میں منتقل ہونے والا انفیکشن تقریباً پچانوے فیصد کیسز میں دائمی بن جاتا ہے۔

مرہم لیب میں اس ٹیسٹ کی قیمت 1,330 روپے ہے، جو 1,900 روپے سے کم ہے۔ فاقہ ضروری نہیں اور رپورٹ اسی دن مل جاتی ہے۔

مثبت رپورٹ آنے پر گھبرائیں نہیں، ڈاکٹر سے رابطہ کریں۔

Final Thoughts

Two thirds of people with hepatitis B worldwide do not know they have it, and in a country where the virus spreads mainly from mother to child and through unsafe injections, that gap is where the harm happens. This test costs 1,330 rupees and takes a minute. If you are pregnant, if someone at home has it, or if you have ever had an injection or procedure where sterilisation was uncertain, it is worth doing.