If you had herpatic whitlow at time of doing a vaginal swab for hsv could that contaminate the swab and cause a positive test? also could washing the swab with tap water cause contamination? thank you it is much appreciated?

If it was a self-collected vaginal swab by someone with a herpetic whitlow and the vaginal swab was not collected (e.g. obtained with the hand with whitlow), it might contaminate the vaginal swab. If there was no obvious whitlow (which is very painful and could not be missed), then contamination is not the likely explanation of a positive vaginal swab PCR for HSV.