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Every week our expert Dr. Rachel Needle answers your questions.

Dear Dr. Rachel,
I recently had sex with a guy I did not know very well and was told after the fact that he has genital herpes. But I did not see anything on his penis. I am going to go to the Doctor this week for a test but was wondering how accurate is the blood test for genital herpes?
Thank you,
Wanting Accuracy Info

Dear Wanting Accuracy Info,

About one in five adults in the United States has genital herpes, but most people don’t know they are infected because their symptoms are too mild to notice or mistaken for another condition. While Herpes is more easily spread during an active outbreak or during prodrome (the few days just before an outbreak), it is possible to contract genital herpes even when no symptoms are present, which is called asymptomatic reactivation or asymptomatic shedding.

It is great that you are going to see your Doctor to get tested. There are a number of different blood tests that can be used when a person has no visible symptoms. Blood tests do not actually detect the virus, but instead, they look for antibodies (the body's immune response) in the blood. The blood tests vary in accuracy, but there are four FDA approved blood tests are very accurate. However, the blood test cannot tell you if the site of infection is oral or genital.

For more details about herpes testing, including some specific recommended tests, look at the American Social Health Association's (ASHA) Herpes Resource Center web site (http://www.ashastd.org/index.cfm).

Good luck!

Dr. Rachel

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