title: Seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 among Zambian women of childbearing age without Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and mother-child pairs with KS.
abstract: The seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) among a group of Zambian women of reproductive age and among mother-child pairs in which either one of them has Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) was determined. A cross-sectional group of 378 pregnant women was randomly recruited into the study, and 183 (48.4%) had HHV-8 antibodies. Among the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected women, 51.1% were HHV-8-seropositive, whereas of HIV-1-negative women, 47.3% were HHV-8-seropositive. In addition, 21 women index patients with KS and 5 young children index patients with KS were studied. All children with KS had mothers who were HHV-8-seropositive, while not all children whose mothers had KS were infected with HHV-8. Our study suggests that there is a high HHV-8 seroprevalence among Zambian women, and the rate is almost the same in HIV-1-positive and -negative women. This high seroprevalence may be a contributing factor toward the increased frequency of KS in this population.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68588-0666
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kankasa
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chintu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wood
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000821:virology*; D012514:Sarcoma, Kaposi / Q000150:complications*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D015024:Zambia / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral