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Hi Terri,
Recently I took a random STD panel test and on the test it had an HSV panel. The test was administered on 11/29/22 and everything came back negative except for HSV-1 which was Equivocal. I was then retested on 12/20/22 and HSV-1 came back as 1.22 and HSV-2 as <.91. For whatever reason they did not provide me with the values for the first test, it just said that HSV-1 was Equivocal boarder line and needed to be retested in 3 weeks. Both test where from Labcorp and I believe are Igg CLIA.
Now I was also tested in 2017 and everything was negative through Quest.
Over the last several years I have had four sexual partners but all sex was protected. The last contact being 10/26/222. Only thing that wasn’t protected was oral and of course kissing. At no time did any other people I date have any signs or symptoms of HSV. I too have never had any signs of HSV. Is there a good chance that my positive test is a false positive and if so am I a good candidate for the Western blot test?
If you provide some guidance it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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You are an excellent candidate for the blot as your values are all low and not changing much from test to test.
Terri
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I think your doctor is just unfamiliar with the data suggesting false positives are common in the low index values – we have research documenting this very well with HSV 2 but I also see it more commonly with HSV 1 these days. About half the population has HSV 1 infection so it is very common and not normally an issue with general health.
it is too early to do a final blot – you should wait 12 weeks from any concerning encounter to do the blot but you can get started by ordering the kit, making an appointment with me or with your own provider to get this done at 12 weeks out.
Terri
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from your experience, is there any reason other than actually having HSV-1 that would make the index a low positive (1.22)? Is there any type of medications, illnesses or reasons that a test maybe be triggered to be a false positive? I have looked endlessly online but it seems like a question that is never addressed.
The test often picks up proteins unrelated to herpes and calls them herpes. It’s a test thing, not a YOU thing
My second question is if the negative HSV-2 test is fairly accurate at roughly 8 weeks. I had a negative result at 4 and 8 weeks but I keep reading 16 weeks is the limit to test. Just trying to get an idea how accurate the CLIA test is for HSV-2 at 8 weeks.
I would say at 8 weeks, it picks up close to 80% of infections, compared to western blot
Terri
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