Herpes

Could the Epstein Barr Virus make a herpes test positive since the EBV is a herpes simplex virus??

I have had the EBV & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for a few years. I had a gyno check up and the herpes test came back positive. Since the EBV is a herpes simplex virus- could that be the reason for the positive results. I have never exhibited signs for symptoms of the oral herpes

Public Comments

1. who on earth told you Epstein Barr was herpes simplex? It isn't.
2. Well i guess false positives are always a problem with any sort of test. I work in a lab, and generally how testing works is the first test is a VERY sensitive test, where you're going to get about 10% false positives. That's why most positives are redone, to confirm them. Testing kits are looking for something specific to the virus/bacteria, whatever it is they're trying to find. I would say that if the conformation test was positive, then it definitly is a postive result. EBV virus is a pretty common virus, so it would cause a lot of problems with testing if that was the case. And EBV is a herpesvirus, not herpes simplex, the links below kind of explain that, the names are so damn confusing! Look it up on wikki, but look up herpesvirus. I would post the link, but it's not letting me for some reason. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/ebv.htm Hope that helped.