engleski

Risk factors and seroprevalence of serum antibody to human herpesvirus 8 among HIV seropositive and seronegative adults from Croatia

Objectives: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) IgG antibodies precede and strongly predict the development of Kaposi’ s sarcoma (KS), but HHV-8 requires additional factors to exert its effect in KS development. The aim of this study was to estimate possible predictors of HHV-8 infection. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb from May 1999 till August 2001. A total of 166 serum samples from adult HIV-infected patients and 219 from blood donors were analysed for IgG antibodies to HHV-8 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using whole virus lysate as antigen (ABI, Columbia, USA). We analysed HHV-8 infection according to gender, age, geographic origin (Mediterranean part of Croatia compared to other parts of the country), HIV-infection and herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2) infection determined by a gG2-specific ELISA (DiaSorin, Saluggia Italy). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate association between HHV-8 and investigated parameters. Results: The prevalence of HHV-8 was 13.3% among HIVinfected patients and 4.1% in blood donors. There were no differences among HHV-8 prevalence according to gender and geographic origin. HHV-8 prevalence among HIV-infected patients was significantly higher in older age (OR 4.0 ; 95%CI 1.39– 14.29). Independent predictors of HHV-8 infection included HIV-infection (OR 2.72 ; 95%CI 1.11– 6.65), HSV-2 infection (OR 2.53 ; 95%CI 1.09– 5, 89) and male gender (OR 5.0 ; 95%CI 1.12– 20.00) Conclusion: HHV-8 infection was independently associated with HIV, HSV-2 and male gender. Our results suggest that sexual transmission of HHV-8 is the most important mode of infection with HHV-8 in adults from Croatia.

Seroprevalence; Serum antibody; Human herpesvirus 8; HIV

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