ACQUISITION OF HUMAN HERPES VIRUS-8 IN INFANCY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8), also called Kaposi's sarcoma herpesvirus (KSHV), was first described in 1994. This herpes virus is most similar to Epstein-Barr virus, another human herpes pathogen. Several other diseases have subsequently been linked to HHV-8. A key issue is how and when people acquire HHV-8 infection. Many human herpesviruses are acquired in early childhood and thereafter have decades long latency period before emerging in mid to late adulthood. The goal of this proposal is to investigate HHV-8 infection in infancy and its route of transmission in neonates born in the United States. The overall goal of this project is to determine the percent of infants who contract HHV-8 infection during the first year of life. These investigators postulate that HHV-8 infection is contracted in the first year of life in more children than previously suspected. In particular, they propose that the infection may be acquired perinatally or in the first few months of life. Presumably maternal blood, secretions in the birth canal, or breast milk would transfer infectivity to the newborn. Oral epithelial cells in the infants mouth are a susceptible cell. Thereafter, the infection would be asymptomatic until late adulthood, unless the person acquired an immunosuppressive condition.