Hunter Handsfield, M.D. ..Western Blot Test Accuracy:.Hello, I have a question about the Western Blot test and it's accuracy. I've read that the Western Blot Test is 98-99% accurate, with possible "negative" results occuring when someone has been exposed to HSV within the last 14-16 weeks or the levels of antibodies are too low to be detected.
I'm in the unfortunate situation of having been infected with HSVII, due to my partner's negative Western Blot test result. When tested, he had been in a monogamous relationship for over 6 months. He originally went to his general practice doctor for STD testing, and received a postive HSVI and HSVII result. His girlfriend at the time, had all negative results. Based on his positive result, he was tested again at an STD clinic, and had a positive result again (For both HSVI and HSVII.) He decided to go to a specialist that performs the Western Blot Test. He explained the two past prior positive results, and when the results came back - was told that he had HSVI antibodies, but NO HSVII antibodies. I've also seen the letter this lab sent, corroborating this.
To make a long story short, after their relationship had ended (6 months later), a few months after that - he and I began an exclusive relationship, we did not use protection -since both of us had been tested in the past, both with negative HSVII results (In my last test, I was negative for both HSVI and HSVII).) Within 3 weeks, I had symptoms, and was diagnosed both visually as well as by a culture test. Devastated, we both returned to the specialist where my partner had originally gone for testing. They compared his old blood work with his new blood work - found that he was positive now - and that yes, in fact, the blood drawn over a year ago - did show early stages of the infection - so he fell into that 1% error category. My test came back as showing early signs/inconclusive, which obviously meant that I had contracted this from my current partner.
My question here really is - if the less effective tests were picking up antibodies in his blood over a year ago - but the Western Blot came back as negative - was this truly the test error or USER error in making a diagnosis of the results? In addition, since he had been in this monogamous relationship for 6 months, he would have contracted the virus prior to that, and should have had enough antibodies in his system for detection (as was obviously concluded by the first 2 tests he'd taken).
Any clarification on this would be much appreciated! Thanks!