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A member asked:
Is a viral culture as accurate as a blood test for hsv2?
A doctor has provided 1 answer
It depends...: Both types of test have pro and cons. When there is an active, fresh outbreak less than 2-3 days in duration, culture (or even better, a PCR test for HSV DNA) is generally best. When no lesions are present, or if healing and culture or DNA is negative, blood test is the only option. However, the blood tests aren't perfect; some positive results are false, especially if only weakly positive.
Answered 7/20/2015
2.5k views
Related Questions
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Had cultlure of lip-pos hsv1, and blood done-pos for HSV 1 neg hsv2/repeated blood test 3 months later results reversed neg 1 postive 2. Doctor puzzled?
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If u have HSV 1(culture of sore) and not hsv2(blood test done neg) test repeated 4 months later, now positive for hsv2 and neg for hsv1, no sores seen?
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Culture of ur lip, it's come back pos hsv1 and same time herpes blood test comes back pos hsv1 3 month later same test repeated only hsv2 no hsv1
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