When the immune system cells see the herpes virus in your system, they develop a very specific response to the virus. The antibody fits the virus perfectly; the antibody is made up of certain proteins specific to the herpes virus, kind of like a lock and key. Antibody in the case of herpes are not really protective, that is they don’t stop a person from having outbreaks, they just indicate that the person is infected. The level of the index value, which you are referring to level of antibody, have no indication about how many outbreaks a person will have in the future nor how infectious they are or anything else. The only concern we have about low antibodies (that is below 3.5) is that it could be a false positive and that a person is not really infected.
We know from doing vaccine studies that allowed people to develop high levels of antibody that antibodies are NOT effective in reducing the risk of transmission.
Does that help?
Terri