Clinical value of HSV type specific antibody testing in the management of STD clinic patients
| Testing reasons | Diagnostic | Counselling | Therapy* | Not useful | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | (%) | No | (%) | No | (%) | No | (%) | No | (%) | |
| *Initiate suppressive therapy. | ||||||||||
| †Patients symptomatic or asymptomatic themselves. | ||||||||||
| ‡See text. | ||||||||||
| Men | ||||||||||
| Undiagnosed recurrent genital ulceration or signs and symptoms suggestive of herpes | 78 | (56.5) | 1 | 59 | (42.7) | 138 | (100) | |||
| First episode of genital ulceration or signs and symptoms suggestive of first episode genital herpes | 30 | (27.5) | 3 | (2.8) | 76 | (69.7) | 109 | (100) | ||
| Sexual partner with known genital herpes† | 40 | (27) | 108 | (73) | 149 | (100) | ||||
| Routine screening | 21 | (26) | 1 | 58 | (74) | 79 | (100) | |||
| Miscellaneous reasons‡ | 6 | (30) | 2 | (10) | 12 | (60) | 20 | (100) | ||
| Women | ||||||||||
| Undiagnosed recurrent genital ulceration or signs and symptoms suggestive of herpes | 54 | (60) | 3 | 39 | (40) | 68 | (100) | |||
| First episode of genital ulceration or signs and symptoms suggestive of first episode genital herpes | 34 | (39.5) | 7 | (11.6) | 2 | 43 | (50) | 86 | (100) | |
| Sexual partner with known genital herpes† | 58 | (50) | 57 | (50) | 1 | 115 | (100) | |||
| Routine screening | 20 | (49) | 21 | (51) | 41 | (100) | ||||
| Miscellaneous reasons‡ | 6 | (20) | 3 | (10) | 21 | (70) | 30 | (100) | ||
| Total | 347 | (41) | 80 | (9) | 8 | 429 | (50) | 856 | (100) | |