title: Human herpes virus-8 infections among subjects with human immunodeficiency virus infection and normal healthy individuals in India.
abstract: Human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) is etiologically associated with Kaposi's sarcoma. There is insufficient information on the epidemiology of HHV-8 infection from India. Blood samples from 87 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals and 84 normal healthy blood donors were tested for the HHV-8 IgG antibodies. Further, a total of 309 whole blood samples from treatment-naïve HIV-1-infected individuals and from 70 normal healthy individuals were also collected and tested for HHV-8 DNA. The seroprevalence of HHV-8 was 4.7% in the South Indian population. There was no significant difference in the seroprevalence of HHV-8 in the HIV-infected and uninfected patients. None of the 379 samples tested were positive for HHV-8 DNA. Our study revealed a very low exposure of the South Indian patient population to HHV-8 and multicentric epidemiological studies are needed to understand the prevalence of HHV-8 in different regions of India and to confirm any gender-specific differences in seroprevalence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Virology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sachithanandham
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kannangai
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.forename: G J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: O C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Pulimood
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D001769:Blood / Q000821:virology; D001782:Blood Donors; D060085:Coinfection / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006566:Herpesviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G