[Question #1689] Transmission
96 months ago
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I was took a blood test and diagnosed with HSV1 and 2 over 8 years ago. I have never had an outbreak - not one. During that time I have been in 3 long term relationships and each partner knew about my diagnosis. After some time we made the decision together to have unprotected sex. Neither partner was infected. I'm with someone new now and we have not had sex. I dread telling him that I have HSV 1 and 2. Since I've never had an outbreak and never transmitted it to my partners, is it possible I don't have it or don't transmit it? Should I be re-tested? I don't know what to do and hate going through this with new relationships.
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
96 months ago
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There are some false positives on the antibody test for herpes - in our practice, 5.5 to 6% of people who did herpes antibody testing by IgG over a period of eight year, fell into the low positive range - 1.1 to 3.5. Of those, about half were false positives, when compared to western blot, the gold standard. So you can see that it is a small number, but it's there,for sure. Do you recall the values of your antibody tests? If in the low positive range, you should get confirmatory testing. Or you could just go directly to confirmatory testing by western blot if you don't know or recall your values. If you do confirm as positive, you can be infectious even without ever having an outbreak, yes, though you will shed less than the person who does have outbreaks. Let me know these answers and we'll go from there, OK?
Terri
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Terri
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96 months ago
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Thank you! Where can I go to make sure that I am getting the western blot test and to ensure that I am given my values? Would somewhere like a LabCorps be able to do that?
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Terri Warren, RN, Nurse Practitioner
96 months ago
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I don't know if LabCorp would send the blood to the University of Washington, the only place in the US where you can get this test done. You can send to UW for a kit to have your blood drawn and sent back to them if your own doc would work with you to do this. You will get either positive, negative or indeterminate - there are no numbers associated with the western blot. Google it - you'll find out how to do it. If you can't get your own provider to work with you on this, I can help you as well.
Terri
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Terri
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