When reading through the news headlines this past couple of days, I came upon an article on sexually-transmitted disease testing wherein a doctor made comments suggesting that it's virtually useless to screen for the herpes virus. Per Dr. Bradley Stoner of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, professional medical testing for the herpes virus is so unreliable (providing false negatives at a number far surpassing lab tests for other types of STDs) that it's effectively useless, unless of course, you are already experiencing repeated outbreaks of blisters and lesions. In this case, the screening would be performed solely to make sure that you have HSV-2 instead of something else. Stoner finished his statement by stating, "Other than that, I probably would not screen for herpes - the waters are just too murky."
This kind of statement was unexpected considering the majority of studies show the blood test for the herpes simplex virus to be approximately 90% effective at diagnosing infections. Stoner's remarks became even more perplexing once I stopped by the website of the ASHA (American Social Health Association) - the very organization for which Stoner acts as a spokesperson. Per the ASHA, there are a handful of FDA-approved blood tests that have been proven to be extremely successful at identifying the herpes simplex virus in patients.
Is There a Debate About Whether to Test for Herpes?
Given the contradictory statements from Stoner's very own agency, along with the absence of corraboration for his position from other experts, it looks like the doctor is the minority in his viewpoint that no test for herpes is effective enough to be worth taking. However, his assertion would have been entirely consistent with opinions stated by other researchers if he had explained that, apart from the handful of FDA-approved blood tests that test for glycoprotein, or gG, no other herpes tests are reliable enough to be utilized for diagnosis.
The Final Word - Is it Worth it to Test for Herpes?
Even though herpes tests are known for being unreliable, with the majority producing an unacceptably excessive volume of false-negative results, there is nevertheless a better case to be presented for being tested than there is for eschewing it. In spite of less-dependable tests like culture swabs and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests failing to properly diagnose infection in as many as 30% of cases, they still present the possibility for millions of herpes-infected people to place themselves on the path to treatment.
Devin Brindinshire's site http://www.herpessymptoms-inmen.com/ deals with diagnosis and treatment of oral and genital herpes in men, as well as other issues related to the herpes simplex virus.
