{"id":6584,"date":"2025-08-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/?p=6584"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:29:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T03:59:43","slug":"how-hep-b-research-helped-when-covid-19-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2025\/08\/how-hep-b-research-helped-when-covid-19-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hep B Research Helped when COVID-19 Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">As the coronavirus spread globally in 2020, and people all around the world began to be uncomfortably familiar with RAT tests and PCR tests, NSW historian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unsw.edu.au\/hdr\/michelle-bootcov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Michelle Bootcov<\/a> realised her <a href=\"https:\/\/unsworks.unsw.edu.au\/entities\/publication\/856939e9-7b28-4a91-87cb-1cf502bc60d1\">in-progress PhD <\/a>on the history of hepatitis B was also a history of the medical discoveries underlying the world\u2019s ability to respond to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBoth the rapid antigen tests (RAT tests) and the variant sequence analysis (PCR tests) that became common knowledge to the general public during COVID, had historical antecedents in hepatitis B research of the 1960s to 1990s,\u201d explained Dr Bootcov, who received her doctorate from the University of NSW in 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d74bb254326&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d74bb254326\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-1200x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6586\" style=\"width:386px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-1200x1200.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Michelle-Bootcov.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Dr Michelle Bootcov, via UNSW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Hepatitis B was a medical emergency in the 1960s, because the increasing use of blood transfusion was accompanied by an increasing incidence of post-transfusion hepatitis. \u201cAlthough the incidence was low in Australia, elsewhere it was as high as 20% to 50%, particularly for multi-unit transfusions from paid donors\u201d Dr Bootcov said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This was especially problematic because HBV infection is frequently asymptomatic, and at that time there was no way to rapidly detect the virus in donated blood, and thus prevent transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn fact, there was no way to rapidly diagnose <em>any <\/em>viral infection. Laboratory diagnosis took so long that the saying was that the patients were dead or discharged from hospital before the results came back.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without a detection test for the virus, the extent of hepatitis B infection was unknown, and only identified in asymptomatic donors when their blood recipients developed post-transfusion hepatitis, at which point it was obviously far too late to prevent transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After decades of futile research by virologists and haematologists, in the late 1960s there was a breakthrough: a test that could detect an antigen associated with the virus. An antigen is a substance that causes the body to make an immune response against it. The presence of one particular antigen in blood reliably indicated hepatitis B infection, and improvements to those antigen testing techniques soon reduced the time to get test results to just a few hours. This was an essential requirement for the use of donor blood products. And this test was the first rapid antigen test for mass screening for a virus anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The antigen in those first hepatitis tests was a protein on the surface of the hepatitis B virus, and initially it was called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/HBsAg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Australia antigen<\/a>&#8221; because the blood in which it was discovered came from an Indigenous community in Central Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d74bb25495f&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d74bb25495f\" class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"743\" height=\"834\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HBsAg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6587\" style=\"width:517px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HBsAg.jpg 743w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HBsAg-600x673.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/HBsAg-300x337.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Transmission electron micrograph of Hepatitis B virus surface antigen, or &#8220;the Australia antigen&#8221;. Image used under CC license from Graham Colm via Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Australia antigen was serendipitously identified in the mid-1960s through genetics enquiry. Within a few years, following a series of research twists and turns and two hepatitis B transmission events that caught the attention of alert scientists, it became clear that the Australia antigen was not the product of a human gene, it was a viral protein,\u201d said Dr Bootcov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The method used in genetics to identify the Australia antigen became the method by which hepatitis B infection could be detected rapidly in donor blood. \u201cThis discovery transformed blood transfusion services\u2019 management of donor blood, and the high demand for those tests fuelled the establishment of the viral diagnostics industry,\u201d explained Dr Bootcov. Reliable testing also revealed the true and frightening extent of hepatitis B infection. In some countries it was hyper-endemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These improvements in blood donor testing paved the way for blood management when HIV\/AIDS emerged in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hepatitis B was also amongst the first viruses to be fully sequenced and its variants analysed. This is a type of analysis that became all too familiar across the world during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Delta, Omicron, and other variants were discovered, traced and tracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d74bb254e49&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d74bb254e49\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"6588\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6588\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1372895745.jpg 1254w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo: Daria Nipot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure data-wp-context=\"{&quot;imageId&quot;:&quot;69d74bb2551fa&quot;}\" data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" data-wp-key=\"69d74bb2551fa\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"759\" data-wp-class--hide=\"state.isContentHidden\" data-wp-class--show=\"state.isContentVisible\" data-wp-init=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\" data-wp-on--load=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-wp-on-window--resize=\"callbacks.setButtonStyles\" data-id=\"6589\" src=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407-1200x759.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6589\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407-1200x759.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407-600x380.jpg 600w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407-300x190.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407-768x486.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/iStock-1297810407.jpg 1288w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><button\n\t\t\tclass=\"lightbox-trigger\"\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\taria-haspopup=\"dialog\"\n\t\t\taria-label=\"Enlarge\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-init=\"callbacks.initTriggerButton\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-on--click=\"actions.showLightbox\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--right=\"state.imageButtonRight\"\n\t\t\tdata-wp-style--top=\"state.imageButtonTop\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"12\" height=\"12\" fill=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 12 12\">\n\t\t\t\t<path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo: Alessandro Biascioli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLooking back to December 2019 and the emergence of an unfamiliar pneumonia in Wuhan, China, it is amazing to recall the speed with which the coronavirus was isolated, and its genome fully sequenced and published,\u201d noted Dr Bootcov. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Soon rapid antigen tests (RATs) could be conducted at home within 15 minutes, [and] PCR and sequencing was so fast that a result could be texted within hours, and viral variant transmission tracked in real time. Few paused to marvel at the magnitude of that scientific possibility!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt had come to be expected. And much of it was thanks to the technologies that emerged through research that began with the hepatitis B virus and its Australia antigen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the coronavirus spread globally in 2020, and people all around the world began to be uncomfortably familiar with RAT tests and PCR tests, NSW historian Michelle Bootcov realised her &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-wide.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,228,268,316],"issue":[327],"ppma_author":[57],"class_list":["post-6584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policies-research","tag-hepatitis-b","tag-testing","tag-covid","tag-history","issue-issue-107"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Hep B Research Helped when COVID-19 Hit | HepSA Community News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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