Getting a Western Blot done.

It's normally done by a person's own doctor after the doc sends for the test kit, and then the doc sends the blood sample out to the proper lab for processing.

Most people in Canada and the USA live far away from the labs that process the test and the blood samples have to be sent. Sending the blood sample out is *usually* how it's done.

Take a look at the page for requesting the Western Blot
http://www.viridae.com/serology.htm Viridae

The Viridae website also has good (a link)
http://www.viridae.com/western.htm info about the test itself, not just about ordering it.

Viridae's phone number is 1(604) 689-9404, but that is also in their website.

Any doctor can "do" a Western Blot but sometimes, patients who request it face a lot of resistance from doctors.

Why?

The Western Blot is something that isn't always done because of a number of reasons:

--doctors don't know it exists

--doctors have heard of the Western Blot but are more familiar with the fact that it tests for HIV, and don't know there's a version of it that tests for herpes.

--doctors are aware of the more common, widely available herpes blood tests that are not able to tell the difference between type 1 and type 2 but they mistakenly think that the WB is one of these tests.

-- because of the previous "reason", many doctors think it's not worthwhile doing a bloodtest for herpes because (using the common, not-so-great tests) most people ("most" being any number over approx. 50%--the percentages get much higher if you look at middle-aged and older people) will test "generally positive for herpes" because they already have type 1 orally.

--some doctors think the process of getting pretest info from the University of Washington or from Viridae (for Canadians), and then sending the sample out to their lab, is a pain.