If I had to guess, I don’t think you have HSV 2 infection.
The only problem here is your use of suppression for one year after having sex with the new partner. Let me see if I have the facts correct:
1) You were negative in 2010
2) You had sex one time with a new partner then had a very low positive and started on suppression one month after that contact?
3) You have been on suppression for a year and you again have a low positive HSV 2 test.
First, I think the chances of you getting HSV 2 at one encounter is very low, all by itself. And no, I don’t think the very low positive would be a result of an infection four days prior. Given that the first time you were tested and you had a rather high negative, I am not surprised that tested slightly higher on the LabCorp test. In my experience both in the the clinic and reading lab results from people on this board, I feel like I see a few more low positive on the LabCorp test than on the Quest antibody test. I would need a study to determine how many false positives there are in that group.
Since you took a year of antiviral therapy, it is going to be slightly more challenging to sort this out. But we must keep in mind that your risk from a single encounter was also very low, statistically. The other factor here is that we don’t know the HSV 2 status of your current partner. Is he willing to test? He cold have HSV 2 and not know it and then that puts you at risk, of course, if you were not infected.
I guess the best thing to do would be to do the western blot now, and if negative, get your partner tested, and he is negative, come off suppression. If you are negative and he is positive, then he should be on suppression.
I’m sure I”ve forgotten something here – please ask me follow up questions.
terri