While in the United States and northern Europe, human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8)
appears to be mainly sexually transmitted with primary infection occurring
in adulthood, the modes of transmission remain unknown in East and Central
Africa, where Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a long-standing endemic disease, oc
curring not only in adults but also in children. The aim of our present stu
dy was to determine the prevalence of HHV-8 infection in children from Yaou
nde, Cameroon, Central Africa. Specific antibodies directed against both la
tent and lytic HHV-8 antigens were detected and titrated, with an immunoflu
orescence assay using the KS-I cell line, in the plasma of 258 children and
adolescents, of 32 mother and child pairs and of 189 pregnant women. Two d
ifferent HHV-8 DNA-specific sequences were searched in the buffy coat by PC
R assays. The overall HHV-8 seroprevalence was 27.5% among these children a
nd adolescents. In newborns, seroprevalence reached 46%, reflecting passive
transmission of maternal IgG. This was followed by a marked drop. Then, be
ginning around 4 years of age, a regular increase of HHV-8 antibodies took
place, reaching 39% in the 12- to 14-year age group and 48% above 15 years,
a rate similar (54.5%) to that observed in pregnant women. PCR detection o
f HHV-3 sequences was negative in seronegative children and positive in the
buffy coat in 17% of HHV-8-seropositive children, reflecting a low viral l
oad in the peripheral blood. Our results establish that in Central Africa H
HV-8 infection takes place during childhood by casual routes, in contrast t
o the sexual transmission observed in adults in northern Europe and the Uni
ted States. We hypothesize that the lymphadenopathic form of KS seen in Afr
ican children is related to an early and massive infection by HHV-8 in susc
eptible individuals. Int. J. Cancer 81:189-192, 1999. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss,
Inc.