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<\/p>\nHerpes tests are pointless, US health officials claim in newly-updated guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reviewed its advice on herpes for the first time since 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One in six Americans aged between 14 and 49 years old are believed to have the virus \u2013 though 90 percent do not know it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But, for a number of reasons, the panel concluded blood tests to detect genital herpes cause more harm than good \u2013 even in pregnant women and young people.<\/p>\n
The report, published by JAMA, outlines a slew of reasons, including the fact that tests are flawed, the virus is changing, and medication may simply mask \u2013 rather than treat \u2013 symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their advice is similar to that published in 2005, but now even stronger given the growing evidence that tests tend to deliver false-positives.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One in six Americans aged between 14 and 49 years old are believed to have the virus \u2013 though 90 percent do not know it. But new guidelines insist testing is not always beneficial<\/p>\n
DIFFERENT KINDS OF HERPES<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Almost everyone has some form of the complex and diverse herpes virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are various strains \u2013 HSV-1 causes cold sores and VSV causes chicken pox and shingles.<\/p>\n In the past, most cases of genital herpes in the United States have been caused by infection with HSV-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, a penchant for oral sex has increased the rate of infections caused by HSV-1.<\/p>\n \n Unlike other infections, early detection isn\u2019t particularly useful to people with genital herpes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Antiviral medications may provide relief from symptoms and outbreaks.<\/p>\n However, these medications do not cure HSV infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n Although transmission of HSV can occur between an infected pregnant woman and her infant during vaginal delivery, interventions can help reduce transmission.<\/p>\n And without symptoms, transmission can be minimal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n TESTING FLAWS\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Adequate evidence suggests that the most widely used, currently available screening test for HSV-2 is not suitable for population-based screening.<\/p>\n According to the task force, evidence shows it to be non-specific, with a high false-positive rate.<\/p>\n Furthermore, since there are increasing rates of genital herpes caused by HSV-1 infections (see section above), the process gets more complicated.<\/p>\n While HSV-1 infection can be identified by serologic tests, the tests cannot determine if the site of infection is oral or genital.<\/p>\n Therefore, these serologic tests are not useful for screening for symptom-less genital herpes resulting from HSV-1 infection.<\/p>\n In the past, most cases of genital herpes in the United States have been caused by infection with HSV-2 (pictured)\u00a0<\/p>\n PROS AND CONS OF EARLY DETECTION<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n The task force concluded there was limited evidence to show any real benefit for early detection.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, they found detection could be more harmful than positive.\u00a0<\/p>\n They highlighted three particularly harmful issues:\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Based on the natural history of HSV infection, its epidemiology, and the available evidence on the accuracy of serologic screening tests, the USPSTF concluded that the harms outweigh the benefits of serologic screening for genital HSV infection in asymptomatic adolescents and adults, including those who are pregnant,\u2019 the study ended.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Herpes tests are pointless, US health officials claim in newly-updated guidelines.\u00a0 The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) reviewed its advice on herpes for the first time since 2005.\u00a0 One in six Americans aged between 14 and 49 years old are believed to have the virus \u2013 though 90 percent do not know it. \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60103\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthmedicinet.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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