You are not alone with the indeterminate western blots. I think it’s really interesting that your ELISA was over 4 and you still had an indeterminate western blot. Good for you for pursuing this further!
I am in total agreement with UW on this. The standard we have been using, at their suggestions, is that if the western blot is still indeterminate at 6 months, then the reaction on the test is due to something of your own in your blood that looking similar enough to part of the herpes antibody that is triggers one band on the test, but it is not herpes.
I know it will likely be hard for you to stop worrying completely, but if you were our patients, I would tell you exactly what UW told you. Unfortunately, herpes testing is not a perfect science and we kind of have to do the best we can with some unclear aspects of testing.
In the past year, I have seen four people test above 4 with either an indeterminate western blot or a negative western blot. All but one had parents born in other countries. May I ask if your parents were born here? My three all were born in India. We know that African samples react a bit differently on some herpes test, I’m wondering about other populations as well?
Terri