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Topics:
General Internal Medicine • Infectious Disease • General Infectious Disease • Sexually Transmitted Diseases • General Primary Care
What do you think about chronic suppressive therapy for HSV-2 in a patient with positive antibodies but no prior clinical outbreak?
Would you expect the presence of antibodies to indicate either immunity from contracting the infection, or otherwise risk of transmitting a latent infection?
Answer from: at Community Practice
The first challenge is often the reliability of the test result. HSV-2 serologies and their interpretation can be challenging. A strongly positive result for HSV2, i.e., an EIA or similar index value well above the minimal cut-off, usually is reliable. Lesser values often are false positives, even t...
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Answer from: at Academic Institution
This patient was likely infected with HSV-2 in the past despite the absence of symptoms and may potentially infect a partner who is not immune; since viral shedding begins before symptoms, this is definitely a risk. I would have an informed consent discussion on possible transmission prevention with...