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How Do I Get Tested For Herpes?

By , About.com Guide

Updated February 08, 2012

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How Do I Get Tested For Herpes?

An outbreak of herpes sores on a child's face. Similar blisters appear on the genitals during a genital herpes outbreak.

Photo Courtesy of the CDC/ Dr. K. L. Hermann
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Question: How Do I Get Tested For Herpes?
Answer:
  • During an outbreak:

    Your healthcare provider will look at the sores and see if they seem typical of a herpes outbreak. If they are, your provider may swab the sores to see if they contain virus. However, this swab test is not always accurate and has a high risk of false negatives. An outbreak that looks like herpes, but that comes back with a negative test for virus, may still be a herpes infection. Testing a swab for virus is most useful in the first 48 hours of a first outbreak. After that, and during recurrent outbreaks, it becomes much less accurate.

    Herpes outbreaks usually appear as one or more blisters that then break open to become sores.

  • Not during an outbreak:

    Although there are commercial blood tests for herpes that looks for antibodies against HSV1 and HSV2, they do not always give conclusive results. There are type-specific blood tests that are more accurate, but these may be more difficult to find. An excellent overview of Herpes testing, that links to a review of current blood tests, can be found here

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