Investigation of Human Herpesvirus-8 Seroprevalence in Blood Donors and HIV-Positive Patients Admitted to Ege University Medical School Hospital, Turkey

Introduction: Humanherpes virus-8 (HHV-8) is anenveloped DNA virus of the family Herpesviridae and the etiological agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), primary effusionlymphoma and Multicentric Castleman'sdisease. In the general population,in areas with high seroprevalence of HHV-8, KS is a significant problem. Individuals with immunodeficiencies such as HIV infection are at increased risk forKaposi'ssarcoma. HHV-8 is not distributed evenly in different parts of the world. While the prevalence of HHV-8in many parts of Africa is around 50%, in Europe, UnitedStates and Japan, the prevalencies are less than 10% .In Turkey, the number of studies on theseroprevalence of HHV-8 in HIV(+) patients and inthe general populationare limited. The aim of this study is to determine HHV-8 seroprevalence in healthy blood donorsand HIV(+) patients admitted to Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital, to determine whether there is a difference in the seroprevalences between these two groups and tocontribute to the HHV-8 epidemiological data in Turkey. Materials and methods: This studywas designed as across-sectional studyto investigate theseroprevalence ofHHV-8in two groups; healthy blood donors and HIV(+) patients. 173HIV (+) patients admitted to Ege University HospitalInfectious Diseases Clinic within two months period, October2013-January 2014, agesranging 18-65 years and healthy blood donors, were includedin the study. HIV(+) patients were questioned to record the duration of disease and history of sexually transmitted diseases. CD4+ lymphocyte counts along with HBsAg, anti-HCV and HIVRNA resultswere obtained from the patient records. In this study, ELISA method (KSHV/HHV-8 IgG ELISA Kit, Advanced BiotechnologiesInc, Columbia, ABD)was usedfor the detection of HHV-8 IgG antibodies from serum samples. Results:HHV-8seropositivity rate of blood donors and HIV(+) patients were found to be 5.3% and 25.4% respectively. HHV-8seropositivity rate differences between these two groups were statistically significant (p <0.05). In bothstudy groups, no statistically significant difference was detected in HHV-8 antibody positivity with gender and age. In HIV(+) patients, no statistically significant difference was observed between HHV-8 seropositivity, duration of HIVpositivity, HIV RNA status andhistory of sexually transmitted diseases and CD4+ cell count. Conclusion: In both study groups seroprevalence rates determined were similar to the European, American and Asian countries, butlower than the African countries. HHV-8seroprevalence rate was significantly higher in HIV(+) patients compared to the blood donors. Because of the high HHV-8 seroprevalence in HIV(+) patients, in this patient group,screening for anti-HHV-8 may be useful to monitör them fort he malignancies caused by this virüs. Keywords: HHV-8/KSHV; HIV;blood donors; seroprevalence