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How Long Does A Common Illegal Drug Take To Leave The Body System?

Posted on Tue, 3 Mar 2015

Question: Hello,
I just wanted to know how long it takes for an illegal drug substance to leave your blood system, for instance what is the most amount of time that it could take? (I don't know the name of the substance so lets just assume worst case scenario here please).
This is because I am due for a blood test to be done in May 2015 to see if my Hepatitis B immunization injections have worked for a new employer and I don't want a stupid mistake I made to show up in the results and ruin that. So also do you know if the Hepatitis B blood test injection will even be looking for anything else in my blood or is it just to check that I'm immune to Hep B?
I just need to know for my own piece of mind, thank you for your honest help. I'm from the UK by the way, so I don't know if that would affect the answer to the way the blood test for the Hep B immunization is done?

Answered by Dr. Rakesh Madhyastha (54 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
drug test

Detailed Answer:
Hello

Thanks for the query

The common illegal drugs usually take upto 3 weeks to show negatively but strictly speaking it depends on the method of testing, some tests show positive results even after 3 months.
However to solve your issue, hepatitis b vaccine will not show on tox screen. HbeAg will come positive which only implies you have been immunised against hepatitis b ( which is a good thing and won't create problems for employment ).

I hope I was of help if you have any further queries please get back to me

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Rakesh Madhyastha (36 minutes later)

Thank you for your help. So does that mean that when they are doing the blood test to see if I'm immunized against Hep B that the blood test will only be looking for the Hep B virus or something to see if immunization has been accomplished and nothing else?

Answered by Dr. Rakesh Madhyastha (16 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
follow up

Detailed Answer:
Hello

Thanks for getting back

Usually they just check if you have an active hepatitis infection or not. They will not check for immunisation status

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Rakesh Madhyastha (15 minutes later)

So would it not make sense for them as an occupational health company to waste money getting a full blood test done if it's only the Hep B virus they're looking for?
And surely I would they would have to tell me if they were doing a full blood test, correct?
Do you think it will be okay then if the blood test is in May-June time?
finally, thanks again.

Answered by Dr. Rakesh Madhyastha (7 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Follow up

Detailed Answer:
Hello

Thanks for getting back

All employers will take an informed consent before any blood tests.

They will not test you for things that you have been immunised for as it is not important for them. They will only want to know if you have an active infection or not.

Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar