I can’t honestly tell if it is new or a false positive or even an old infection and you just have a low positive value. Are you at all able to contact this person and ask her to get tested and pay for it? If she is negative, that would take new infection off the table.
I’m by no means telling you not to be concerned about it. It is definitely something to be concerned about. What are you other “people” that are giving you that advice? Are they knowledgable herpes experts? If they are not, then I would suggest that you be skeptical.
Frankly, you just have a couple of options here. The first is to get a herpes western blot now. If it is positive, there is no need to wait for anything – it’s a done deal. The second, of course, is to wait 16 weeks and then either get another ELISA and if it is above 3.5 you were likely experiencing a new infection. If it is negative, it was likely a false positive. If you wait 16 weeks and get a herpes western blot, that will give you hopefully a clearer answer.
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Terri