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What Does Positive IgG For HSV 1 Indicate?
Question: I had a lesion on my penis and went to the doctor. Doctors response was that he thought it was an abrasion; however, I went to get lab work done privately. I had a positive screen for HSV1 (IgG blood test). Negative screen for HSV2. Does this rule out genital herpes or may the lesion on my penis have been HSV1 regardless of what the culture said? Also, lab results were 15.3. I'm curious if this can give me an indication for how long I have had the infection.
Brief Answer:
Herpes
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to healthcaremagic
I am Dr. Kakkar. I have gone through your query and I have understood it.
A positive IgG for HSV 1 indicates that you are infected with herpes but that does'nt confirm that the particular episode you are referring to was due to genital herpes. It could be either an unrelated abrasion or herpes.
Titre does'nt tell anything about the duration of infection. IgG positivity does tell that it is an old infection (> 1 month old) and not recently acquired. Whereas, IgM positivity in the absence of IgG negativity would have indicated a recent infection. However, both IgG and IgM may become positive during a recurrent episode of herpes.
The major disadvantage of the culture is its high rate of false negatives. Because a culture works by requiring virus that is active, if a lesion is very small, or is already beginning to heal, there may not be enough virus present for an accurate culture. Moreover beyond 48 hours of the symptoms appearing, there is a risk of receiving a false negative test result. Viral culture is even less accurate during recurrences (positive in only about 30% of recurrent outbreaks).
Hope this helps
Regards
Herpes
Detailed Answer:
Hello and welcome to healthcaremagic
I am Dr. Kakkar. I have gone through your query and I have understood it.
A positive IgG for HSV 1 indicates that you are infected with herpes but that does'nt confirm that the particular episode you are referring to was due to genital herpes. It could be either an unrelated abrasion or herpes.
Titre does'nt tell anything about the duration of infection. IgG positivity does tell that it is an old infection (> 1 month old) and not recently acquired. Whereas, IgM positivity in the absence of IgG negativity would have indicated a recent infection. However, both IgG and IgM may become positive during a recurrent episode of herpes.
The major disadvantage of the culture is its high rate of false negatives. Because a culture works by requiring virus that is active, if a lesion is very small, or is already beginning to heal, there may not be enough virus present for an accurate culture. Moreover beyond 48 hours of the symptoms appearing, there is a risk of receiving a false negative test result. Viral culture is even less accurate during recurrences (positive in only about 30% of recurrent outbreaks).
Hope this helps
Regards
Note: Consult a Sexual Diseases Specialist online for further follow up- Click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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