What is herpes 1 1/2?

Last week it was warm out and I decided to wear a thong. two days later I started having a 'rugburn' type sensation on my vagina. I wound up shaving to try and keep everything neat and assumed everything would get better once the irritation was over. The day after I shaved i got bumps along with pain. On top of that I had a sore throat and an ear infection forming so i went to the doctor. They did all kinds of STD tests. My strep test came back negative (possibly from the ampicillin I take for acne).

All of the STD tests came back negative except my herpes test. The only problem with it was that it didn't come back as positive for type 1 or type 2. It came back as type 1 1/2. Does that even exist? or did they screw up the test somewhere along the way and I may not actually have herpes? I was tested for herpes in december and came back negative and the only guy ive been with since has been tested and came up negative for everything as well. I have been taking valtrex for two days now and from what i can see i only seem to be getting worse. I have a lot of discharge and the bumps are not healing. How long should it take for me to start seeing any sort of positive change?

Is it possible that I have a false positive and something happened to my sample? Or is there an actual 1 1/2 strain. I cannot find any information about this.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

There is no such thing as herpes 1 1/2, so I really can't interpret your test.  The person you should be putting this question to is the doctor who ordered it.  If the test was a blood test, the presence of Herpes-1 means nothing more than that you were exposed to herpes somewhere on your body at some point, not that you have genital herpes.

As to the bumps and discharge, that doesn't sound like herpes either.  You'll need to see a gynecologist or dermatologist about those.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff