Abstract
Patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) have a hi gh risk of blood-borne viral infections. Bloodborne transmission of Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) may exist. The possibility of high incidence of post transplantation Kaposi sarcoma (KS) might be t he result of infection with HHV-8. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HHV-8 in 60 uremic Egyptian patients on regular HD by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) compared to 30 hcontrols and study the role of associated risk factors. HHV-8 DNA was detected in peripheral blood mononuclear cells by PCR using primer sets located in the HHV-8 open reading frame 9-1(ORFK9-1) . The prevalence of HHV8 was significantly higher (p=0.029) in HD patients compared to the control group. The detection rate of HHV-8 DNA was significantly higher in older age (p=0.026), and longer duration of HD (p= 0.025). HHV-8 DNA detection rates were insignifican tly different with patient sex, history of blood transfusion, patient education and residence. High prevalence of HHV-8 infection in HD patients supports the possibility of virus transmission in t hose patients via HD, or uremic patients are at ris k of reactivation of HHV-8-latent infection.
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