› Forums › Herpes Questions › Recent Positive Test on HSV-2 (HerpeSelect) IgG test through Quest › Reply To: Recent Positive Test on HSV-2 (HerpeSelect) IgG test through Quest
You are wise to try and sort out this low positive HSV 2 result. Did you also test for HSV 1? If yes, what was the result? A value of 2.02 has about a 50-50 chance of being a true positive, certainly worth checking out. Has your current partner actually had an antibody test or HSV 2? When was the last time you had sex with anyone different than your current partner? If your current partner has been actually tested for HSV 2 antibody and test negative and it has been four months since you last had sex with anyone else, then a western blot is appropriate. I don’t know how you are going about getting it. Do not be confused between western blot and immunoblot and an inhibition assay. They are all different and only the western blot should be used to confirm or not confirm low positives. Antibody would only be created now if you were recently infected, thus the important of understanding the thing of your most recent sexual encounters with people that might be infected.
The CDC guidelines do say that some experts (myself included) recommend herpes testing as part of an STD screen and the new guidelines coming out next year will reinforce that and also address the low positive problem.
Yes, the lower the index value (over .91) the higher the likelihood that it will be a false positive.
Terri