Debate: the argument against. Should every STD clinic patient be considered for type-specific serological screening for HSV?

Abstract

While initially attractive, the idea that all individuals attending sexually transmitted disease or genitourinary medicine clinics should be offered type-specific screening for herpes simplex virus may be impractical, and even undesirable, for a number of reasons. These include the lack of a cost-effective and sufficiently specific and sensitive screening test, the absence of an intervention that benefits the health of the individual or reduces the risk of onward transmission and, not least, the psychological, social and sexual sequelae of an unexpectedly positive result.