Serological Testing for Herpes Can Lead to Misinterpretation in Disease Transmission

Abstract

Herpes is a ubiquitous virus which can produce orolabial and genital infections in humans. Multiple laboratory tests are available to diagnose herpes infections including viral culture, direct fluorescent antibody assays, molecular techniques, and serology. The use of serological markers has lead to numerous epidemiological studies, but there results can be misleading. Seropositivity merely signifies that a person reacts in a specific type of immunological response to specific viral proteins, it certainly does not rule out the existence of the virus in the host. Serological testing for fungal or most viral infections do not approach total diagnostic accuracy. The numerous herpes transmission studies based exclusively on serological testing and seroconversion (despite being published in esteemed journals) have major deficits and may well not be clinically significant.