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[loveulongtime]

The reason why I had the person that I've been dating get an IGG test first was because he told me that he had unprotected sex with his prior girlfriend that had herpes for a year and a half, but never had an outbreak.  One of my best friends has herpes and I wanted to make sure I prevented it.  Within 4 weeks of having unprotected sex with him, I'm "positive" I now have genital herpes.  I did start to have symptoms soon after, I just didn't understand what it was.  I went to a doctor who specialized in infectious diseases and she confirmed it by looking at me visually and my blood tests.

She did say that it is possible for a person to have 0.00 IGG and still spread HSV 2, as they are asymptomatic.  He was with her a long time, unprotected sex, and he never had an outbreak.  He never had an IGM test with the IGG test.  He is positive for type 1 herpes and I've always known that I had type 1 too.  Neither of us have every had coldsores from the type 1 virus.  

I think there is difinitely a grey area.  If you're having unprotected sex with someone that has herpes for that long, the virus has got to be "somewhere."  I don't think that it is black and white.
Does it disappear in asymptomatic people or what?  My major question is how can a person be 0.00 for HSV2 IGG after having unprotected sex for over a year with someone that had herpes and spread the virus to his next sex parter, ((or is this not possible??))

Is it possible to spread HSV2 if your IGG is 0.00 for an asymptomatic person in this scenerio???  

What test should he get that would have the highest sensitivity and accuracy with IGM and IGG for HSV 1 & 2?  

Thanks  

[auntiejessi]

They might not show positive on a herpeselect, but some of them would show positive on a western blot, which looks for a different type of antibodies.

The herpeselect misses about 10% of hsv1 infections.

AJ

[stillHurting]

http://www.myracoon.net/pdfs/Time_to_Seroconversion.pdf

According to this graph, it's more like 4% that never seroconvert for HSV-2, and higher for HSV-1.  That's with HerpesSelect.  Of course the data doesn't go out for years, but most people don't test out that far anyway.

From that graph a Western Blot does fair a lot better.

AJ, do you know of a better study than this one?  I'm interested if there's more recent/better data somewhere.  I'd actually like to believe that the tests are more accurate than they appear.

[auntiejessi]

Its less than 1%, I believe, that never seroconvert, but they would be positive on other herpes test, such as the western blot.

If all you had was an IgM, that shouldn't even be factored in the diagnosis.  The IgM is terribly unreliable, and shouldn't be drawn on adults.  If you search here for IgM and herpes, you'll find Dr. HHH's response on that.

AJ

[stillHurting]

One thing to remember too, is that some people with HSV-2 never seroconvert (become positive on IgG tests).  It's a very small percentage, less than 5%, but it's not 0%.

[scared_half_to_death]

AJ... She had an IGM test and thinks that she has herpes.

[auntiejessi]

There is very little chance that a person would ever get a 0.00 on an IgG test result.  The way the test works (and I am not a test techie, so my explanation is vague), is that even those who are negative will still get a real number, like .35, or .29 - but it is very rarely 0.00.

Also, someone who is physically capable of spreading herpes will test positive on a test.

Have you seen his results?  I'd want to see copies.  He doesn't need an IgM test - that's a totally unreliable test, and he would have had it long enough so that the IgM wouldn't matter.  What were your results?

AJ

AJ

[yearofchange]

You should post this question in the herpes forum.  I am very curious to know the answer.