Patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) have a high risk of blood-borne viral infections. Blood-borne transmission of Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) may exist. The possibility of high incidence of post transplantation Kaposi sarcoma (KS) might be the result of infection with HHV-8.
The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HHV-8 in Egyptian patients on regular HD by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) compared to healthy controls and study the role of associated risk factors In 60 uremic patients on regular HD and 30 healthy control subjects, 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 HHV-8 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 insignificantly 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 these patients via HD, or uremic patients are at risk of reactivation of HHV-8-latent infection.