What Is a False Positive Result?
In medical testing, a false positive result indicates that you have a condition or disease when you actually do not. In an antibody test, the main goal is to identify antibodies released by the immune system to fight against the virus. A disadvantage of this option is that it cannot differentiate between a previous and an active infection. Therefore, a false positive result may happen when the test detects antibodies from a previously acquired infection. Another problem is cross-reactivity, which means the positive result is triggered by another infection other than hepatitis C. In these cases, your doctor needs to verify it with another blood test, which is the RNA PCR test. [4]
