1) The PCR swab test was conducted by a OBGYN Nurse Practitioner who had given me bad information about a condition I had prior to the HSV outbreak. After the swab test came back positive, the Nurse Practitioner said:
“You’re positive for HSV1. This is great news! This means you’ll never have another outbreak and will never test positive for herpes again! It will be like you never had it.” (Seriously. I wrote it down and read it back to her, and she said I got it right.)
I went over this and over this with her on the phone to be 100% certain of what she was saying–because it didn’t seem right after the reading I’d done on the CDC site and your site.
She’s incorrect about this, yes? While I *might* never have another outbreak, I *do* have HSV1 in the genitals and can infect others when the virus is shedding. Which means I need to guard against it every time there’s any sexual contact, yes?
Yes, although HSV 1 recurs very infrequently and some people don’t ever have another outbreak. The shedding is far less than HSV 2, but when first infected, you are shedding on about 13 out of 100 days, the transmission rate is higher when first infection.
2) Finally–the swab test came back “Positive.” Should there have been a number metric? The lab won’t talk directly to me, the Nurse Practitioner won’t request them to provided any detail, and my general practitioner didn’t get good answers.
No, no numbers associated with a positive
I guess I’m hoping the swab test wasn’t a false positive because of the shingles and valacyclovir days before the exposure and outbreak. Do you have any idea how likely a false positive is on the swab test?
I really appreciate your providing this forum to ask questions my doctors can’t answer.
A false positive is highly unlikely with a swab test.
terri