Correlates of human herpes virus-8 and herpes simplex virus type 2 infections in Northern Cameroon

✍ Scribed by A. Volpi; L. Sarmati; B. Suligoi; M. Montano; G. Rezza; M. Andreoni

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 87 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.20200

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The association between sexual activity and human herpes virus‐8 (HHV‐8) infection has been established, but the mode of acquisition is still unclear. Blood samples from 238 individuals from Northern Cameroon were tested to evaluate the incidence of herpes simplex virus‐2 (HSV‐2), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Treponema pallidum, and HHV‐8 infections and to identify their possible association. The presence of HSV‐2 antibodies was associated significantly with gender, age, and HIV, HHV‐8 antilatent, and T. pallidum antibodies, but not with HHV‐8 antilytic antibodies. In a multivariate model older age, female gender, seropositivity for HIV, for HHV‐8 latent antigens and for T. pallidum were associated independently with seropositivity for HSV‐2. HSV‐2‐seropositive individuals had significantly higher titers of antibodies to both lytic (P = 0.019) and latent (P = 0.021) HHV‐8 antigens. These results suggest that HSV‐2 infection can contribute to sexual transmission of HHV‐8 infection. J. Med. Virol. 74:467–472, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.