HSV – Herpes Simplex Virus. HSV-1 is the virus mainly associated with cold sores on your lips or faces. HSV-2 is the virus mainly associated with genital herpes. The viruses are very similar.
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
internal fetal labour monitoring – where an electrode is inserted through the vagina and placed on the baby’s scalp to record the baby’s heart rate during labour.
cryptococcus (crypto) – a fungal infection. Can cause meningitis.
phenotype — relating to how an organism behaves, based on how its genotype relates to the environment. Phenotypic resistance tests look at whether HIV continues to grow in a test tube after increasing concentrations of a drug are added. See genotype.
specificity – when referring to the accuracy of a test result, specificity refers to the proportion of people who do not have an illness or disease who have a negative test result.
If a test has low specificity, the concern is over false-positive results – where people who to not have a condition are wrongly diagnosed as having it.
If a test has high specificity, then people who to not have a condition are correctly ruled out from the condition.
For a serious condition, high specificity is essential to prevent people being unnecessarily treated.
See sensitivity.