Seroprevalence of human herpesvirus 8 among Zambian women of childbearing age without Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and mother-child pairs with KS

Jun He, Ganapati Bhat, Chipepo Kankasa, Chifumbe Chintu, Charles Mitchell, Wenjing Duan, Charles Wood

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71 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1787-1790
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Infectious Diseases
Volume178
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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