SHEDDING OF CYTOMEGALOVIRUS AND HERPESVIRUS-6, HERPESVIRUS-7, AND HERPESVIRUS-8 IN SALIVA OF HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE 1-INFECTED PATIENTS AND HEALTHY CONTROLS

We used the polymerase chain reaction to study the presence of DNA fro m cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human herpesvirus (HHV)-6, HHV-7, and HHV- 8 in saliva from 44 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1-infected patients at different stages of disease and in 15 healthy HIV-seroneg ative controls. CMV DNA, HHV-6 DNA, and HHV-7 DNA were found in all gr oups, but HHV-8 DNA was found only in symptomatic HIV-l-infected patie nts (5 [17%] of 29). One of the patients with HHV-8 DNA in saliva had oral Kaposi's sarcoma at the time of sampling, and another later devel oped the tumor, CMV DNA was found most often in the patients with AIDS . HHV-6 shedding tended to be less frequent among HIV-1-infected patie nts than among healthy controls. HHV-7 DNA was detected least frequent ly in the group of patients with AIDS. The presence of viral DNA was n ot correlated either with antiherpesvirus drug therapy or with oral sy mptoms, apart from Kaposi's sarcoma.