Is there a confirmatory test (Elisa or Western Blot, for example) that is recommended for a barely positive HSV 2 IgG test?  I heard that one test should not be accepted as absolutely positive, especially when levels are barely within positive range.  Thank you.

Good morning Mary,
There absolutely is a confirmatory test for a low positive IgG (that is the ELISA test).  It is the western blot.  Right now, in the US, there are, that I am aware of, two ways to get the test.  One is to write to the University of Washington lab and have them send you a lab kit for this test.  You would have your own provider draw the blood, spin it down, and ship it back to the UW. The other is for my clinic (Westover Heights Clinic) to order the test to be drawn at a Quest lab near you and they will ship it to UW.  Quest used to do this routinely all over the US but changed their policy a while back and stopped doing that. I kicked up such a fuss that they allowed only me to continue to use this service and for that I am so very very grateful.  It just makes it pretty easy.  But if you have a clinician who you would like to do the blood draw and spinning and shipping, doing it directly through UW is the other fine option.  The CDC also recommends confirming all values between 1.1 and 3.5 so you are wise to do so.  Please let me know if I can help or answer any other questions for you.

Terri
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