Here are some tests that are available if you feel you have herpes:
Test your Culture
The doctor will look at the area, take a sample from the sore (s) and test to see if the herpes virus is present. The test you should ask for is a specific virus culture or assay for herpes virus.
Remember, the test will not work if the wound has healed by cell culture tests. Virus specimens, grown under controlled conditions and allowed to proliferate, visible under a microscope, so you need an example of active lesions. if the wound has started healing, cell culture or PCR test can give false negative results.
Antigen Test
This test is to find markers or antigens from cells smeared on a microscope slide. Antigen on the surface of cells infected with herpes virus.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test
PCR tests found genetic material (DNA) of HSV. This test can distinguish between HSV-1 and HSV-2. PCR testing can be performed on cells or fluid from lesions or in blood or other body fluids.
Antibody Test
Blood tests are often used when someone has concerns about herpes, but it has no visible symptoms. Blood tests can find antibodies produced by the immune system to fight herpes infections. In the past, the specific type of blood test is not always accurate because they confused other antibodies such as the herpes zoster virus varicella (chicken pox), Epstein Barr, or mononucleosis for herpes simplex (Types 1 and 2) antibodies. Several blood tests can distinguish between HSV-1 and HSV-2. Western Blot has long been the standard test for diagnosis. It was designed to test the antibody, but expensive and time consuming.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a highly accurate blood test for diagnosing specific types of herpes. The new test costs about one-fifth Western blot and a lot faster and easier to manage. One of them, HSV-2 Test POCkit fast by Diagnology is an accurate test for genital herpes caused by herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2). The “POC” in POCkit stands for “Point Of Care”, which means the tests can be performed in the doctor’s office and can provide results in less than 10 minutes. Meridian Diagnostics has developed a test for HSV-1. With the Meridian Premier test, health care providers take a blood sample from the arm and the blood sent to a lab for results. Results could take several days depending on how fast the lab can conduct tests. Other tests that require blood to be drawn and sent to the HerpeSelect results from Focus Technology. This test can not determine whether the oral or genital HSV infection. However, because most cases of genital herpes caused by HSV-2, Type 2 is the most positive results tend to show a genital infection. If a person is initially exposed to the virus, it may take several weeks to develop antibody test is evaluated.