A nursing student has just completed her hepatitis B vaccine series. On reviewing her laboratory studies (assuming she has no prior exposure to hepatitis B), you Expect:

Ans. B. Antibody against hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBS) alonea. The current hepatitis B vaccine is genetically engineered to consist of hepatitis B surface antigen particles.b. Therefore, only antibody to surface antigen will be detected after vaccination.c. Since the patient has had no exposure to hepatitis B, she should be surface antigen-negative; surface antigen positivity means active disease, either acute or chronic.d. Patients who have recovered from hepatitis B have HBS ab and HBC ab.