Detection of human herpesvirus 8 DNA sequences in tissues and bodily fluids

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) has been proposed as a sexually transmitted eti ologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). In this study, by use of a sensitive polymerase chain reaction assay, HHV-8 DNA was detected in the skin lesion s (92%), normal skin (23%), peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) (46%) , plasma (7%), saliva (37%), and semen (12%) but not stool samples from KS patients. The average number of HHV-8 copies per microgram of positive targ et DNA was 64,000, 9000, 40, 33,000, and 300 for skin, PBMC, plasma, saliva , and semen samples, respectively. Only 1 non-KS donor sample, of saliva, w as positive for HHV-8. Sequencing showed 5% divergence among HHV-8 strains. The data suggest that saliva may be more important than semen or stool in the sexual transmission of HHV-8. The relatively high prevalence of HHV-8 i n PBMC raises the question as to why there is no evidence for bloodborne vi rus transmission.