J Infect Dis. 2004 Sep 15;190(6):1068-75. Epub 2004 Aug 11.

Mother-to-child transmission of human herpesvirus-8 in South Africa.

Dedicoat M, Newton R, Alkharsah KR, Sheldon J, Szabados I, Ndlovu B, Page T, Casabonne D, Gilks CF, Cassol SA, Whitby D, Schulz TF.

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, and Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit, Oxford, United Kingdom. martded@aol.com

To investigate transmission of human herpesvirus (HHV)-8, 2546 mother-child pairs were recruited from rural clinics in South Africa and were tested for antibodies against lytic and latent HHV-8 antigens. The prevalence of antibodies in children increased with increasing maternal antibody titer (lytic, chi 21=26, and P<.001; latent, chi 21=55, and P<.001). HHV-8 DNA was detectable in 145 of 978 maternal saliva samples (mean virus load, 488,450 copies/mL; range, 1550-660,000 copies/mL) and in 12 of 43 breast-milk samples (mean virus load, 5800 copies/mL; range, 1550-12,540 copies/mL). The prevalence of HHV-8 DNA in maternal saliva was unrelated to latent anti-HHV-8 antibody status but was higher in mothers with the highest titers of lytic antibodies than in other mothers (34% vs. 8%; P<.001). The prevalence of lytic anti-HHV-8 antibodies in children was 13% (70/528) if the mother did not have HHV-8 in saliva and was 29% (8/28) if the mother had a high HHV-8 load (>50,000 copies/mL) in saliva (odds ratio, 2.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-6.2). The presence of HHV-8 DNA in maternal saliva was unrelated to latent antibodies in children. Saliva could be a route of transmission of HHV-8 from person to person, although other routes cannot be ruled out.

PMID: 15319855