AEGiS-13IAC: Bloodborne transmission of human herpesvirus 8 in US women.

13th International AIDS Conference

Durban, South Africa - July 9-July 14, 2000

Bloodborne transmission of human herpesvirus 8 in US women.

Int Conf AIDS 2000 Jul 9-14; 13:39 (abstract no.. LbPeA7027)

Smith D, Cannon M, Dollard S, Klein R, Schuman P, Rich J, Vlahov D, Pellett P
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333. Fax: 404-639-6118, E-mail: dks0@cdc.gov.

BACKGROUND: Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), the causal agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, is transmitted sexually among men who have sex with men. However, it is not yet clear whether HHV-8 is transmitted via other routes, such as blood.

METHODS: We studied HHV-8 infection in the HIV Epidemiology Research (HER) study cohort, which consists of 871 HIV-positive women and 439 HIV-negative women at high risk for HIV infection from four US sites. We used two peptide enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for detecting antibody against HHV-8 lytic-cycle antigens.

RESULTS: HHV-8 seroprevalence in the cohort was 16.1%. HHV-8 seropositivity was associated with black race (p=0.01), Hispanic ethnicity (p=0.05), and low education (p=0.03); infection with HIV (p=0.003), syphilis (p=0.001), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) (p=0.001); and having ever injected drugs (p=0.02). HHV-8 seropositivity increased with frequency of injection drug use (p<0.001); seroprevalence in heaviest users was three times that in never-injectors. Among women with low sexual risk, HHV-8 seroprevalence was 0% in never-injectors and 36% in ever-injectors (p<0.001). In multivariate analyses, independent predictors of HHV-8 seropositivity included HIV (odds ratio (OR)=1.6, p=0.01), syphilis (OR=1.8, p=0.01), and HCV (OR=1.5, p=0.02) or regular injection drug use (OR-2.1, p=0.007) (these latter two variables were modelled separately to avoid collinearity).

CONCLUSIONS: The association of injection drug use and HCV infection with HHV-8 seropositivity suggests that HHV-8 is transmitted via shared needles, implying bloodborne transmission of HHV-8 in the US.

Keywords: AEGIS, Herpesvirus 8, Human, Sarcoma, Kaposi, HIV Infections, Seroepidemiologic Studies, HIV Seropositivity, Hepacivirus, Syphilis, Human, Female, Male, transmission, AIDS
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