Three separate care pathways

Hepatitis B: testing, diagnosis and vaccination

Prepare the right questions without interpreting a laboratory result yourself. Testing finds markers; diagnosis requires qualified confirmation and clinical assessment; vaccination is a separate prevention decision and does not diagnose infection.

Possible recent blood/body-fluid exposure or pregnancy needs prompt professional guidance. Contact a qualified health service or local public-health programme now rather than waiting for this checklist. Severe illness, confusion, bleeding or marked yellowing of the eyes or skin needs urgent care.

Conversation context

Timing is passed to the service; this app never uses it to decide that action is too late.

Do not enter actual laboratory values, vaccine batch details, names, clinic details or identifiers.

Three-pathway summary

Choose the context to keep testing, diagnosis and vaccination questions separate.

What each pathway means

Testing: for initial screening of adults aged 18 or older, CDC describes a triple panel of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to surface antigen (anti-HBs), and total antibody to core antigen (total anti-HBc). Age-specific, exposure and perinatal pathways differ. Pregnancy has a distinct pathway that includes HBsAg screening during each pregnancy.

Qualified diagnosis: marker names or combinations are not a self-diagnosis. A clinician or qualified programme confirms what was tested, whether a finding is confirmed and what further assessment is needed.

Vaccination: documented doses, testing and diagnosis are related information but separate decisions. Only the applicable national programme or qualified service should decide eligibility and timing.

Official sources, reviewed 26 July 2026: WHO hepatitis B fact sheet (10 June 2026); WHO consolidated implementation handbook (15 February 2026); CDC clinical testing and diagnosis.