I am often grateful for you and your writing, and I recognize the immense time it must take to compile all this info in a digestible way. This might be the series I’m MOST appreciative of because I struggle to explain all this to patients and always am left feeling frustrated and inadequate because it’s so complex. I hope there will be a third bit, explaining the difficulty in counseling someone who does test positive for HSV2 who is asymptomatic about how to proceed (take antivirals? Barrier methods every time? What to tell partners?). It’s fraught!!
Against my better judgment, I succumbed to a patient request for HSV blood testing once a few years ago when working in primary care. She absolutely lost it when she tested positive for HSV-2. She'd never had an outbreak before. I told her this was not a reliable test and that's why I didn't recommend this testing.
Now I work in public health, and we do not offer HSV serology. We swab any suspicious genital lesions for HSV 1/2.
I am often grateful for you and your writing, and I recognize the immense time it must take to compile all this info in a digestible way. This might be the series I’m MOST appreciative of because I struggle to explain all this to patients and always am left feeling frustrated and inadequate because it’s so complex. I hope there will be a third bit, explaining the difficulty in counseling someone who does test positive for HSV2 who is asymptomatic about how to proceed (take antivirals? Barrier methods every time? What to tell partners?). It’s fraught!!
Against my better judgment, I succumbed to a patient request for HSV blood testing once a few years ago when working in primary care. She absolutely lost it when she tested positive for HSV-2. She'd never had an outbreak before. I told her this was not a reliable test and that's why I didn't recommend this testing.
Now I work in public health, and we do not offer HSV serology. We swab any suspicious genital lesions for HSV 1/2.
I’ve always wondered and figured there were reasons. This is great! Thanks ☺️
Excellent information as always. Thank you
Does this hold true for all IgG serology testing? for example when checking immunity to measles? Or is it just specific to HSV?