Bay Area Friends - San Francisco's Social Group for People with Herpes

Many doctors and health care professionals are not up-to-date about herpes diagnosis, and will tell you that the only way to accurately diagnosis whether or not you have the genital herpes virus is by taking a culture from an active herpes outbreak and sending it to the lab.  These doctors *used to* be right.  Until recently, there were no reliable herpes blood tests that could distinguish accurately between HSV-1 and HSV-2.  And some of the old, inaccurate blood tests are still being used by doctors and labs.  But research has made great strides, and since 1999, there are NEW IgG blood tests now available that DO distinguish between HSV-1 and HSV-2 and are 97-100% ACCURATE, if taken no earlier than 12-16 weeks after your exposure to the virus. 

Many doctors offices and clinics are still using the older, inaccurate blood tests. Please make sure to find out the name of the company and test that your doctor's office or lab is using for herpes blood tests, and make sure it is one of the tests on the list below.

Below is the list of recommended type-specific blood tests from the American Society for Social Health (ASHA).   Please give a copy of this list to your doctor.  Remember - you must WAIT AT LEAST 12-16 WEEKS after you were exposed to herpes, in order to give the virus antibodies enough time to develop in your blood stream. Otherwise the tests may not be accurate. 

- To make a PDF printout of the Recommended Herpes Blood Tests reference guide from the American Society for Social Health, please go to the ASHA web page at: http://www.ashastd.org/pdfs/blood_test.pdf.  Give a copy to your doctor!

- There is an excellent webpage which lists both the NEW, ACCURATE herpes blood tests and the OLD, INACCURATE herpes blood tests so that you can see if your doctors office is using the bests tests.  If not, please insist that they read this information so that they can get up-to-date before the next patient comes in.  We can be part of the solution by helping our health care providers get the information they need.  Check out this great link: http://www.herpesdiagnosis.com/blood.html

- If you do not have health insurance, you can get a type-specific herpes blood test done at the San Francisco City Clinic or at some local Planned Parenthood offices.  The SF City Clinic charges just $10 per visit. (Donations welcome) and their website is at: http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/sfcityclinic/. You can find a local Planned Parenthood Golden Gate office at http://www.ppgg.org/site/c.esJMKZPKJtH/b.1101661/k.BD72/Home.htm  You might want to call ahead to make sure your local Planned Parenthood office offers the type-specific herpes blood tests.

- In many states, including California, you can order your own CONFIDENTIAL blood tests for STDs including herpes by using services like TSTD.org or HealthCheckUSA..  The Herpes Only test panel (using the IgG HerpeSelect test listed below) costs $98-$100.  This fee includes the laboratory testing, preparation of the order, physician supervision of ordering and interpretation of the results, pre-test counseling, post-test counseling, and any confirmatory testing that may be required. You enter your zip code and it will tell you all the local labs near you which will do the tests.  You must sign up for the tests online and your credit card will be charged before you go to the lab. These companies also offer tests for other STD's which you may or may not want to take.  Your results are confidential and are not part of your regular medical records.  For more information, go to: http://www.tstd.org/ or HealthCheckUSA.

HERPES BLOOD TESTS QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE FROM ASHA (Updated January 2005)

Source = http://www.ashastd.org/pdfs/blood_test.pdf