WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (AFP) - Kaposi's sarcoma, a condition often seen in male AIDS sufferers, may be transmitted by kissing between men, according to a study to be published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8), which causes Kaposi's sarcoma -- a tumor that appears as purplish blotches on the skin or in the mouth -- may be caused by kissing that involves an exchange of saliva, the study found.

"When we think of STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), we traditionally think of infections which are spread through sexual contact. It turned out that HHV-8 has been very hard to find in genital secretions," said the study prepared by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Kaposi's sarcoma, encountered for centuries in southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, became more common in the United States and western Europe in the early 1980s when an epidemic in homosexual men heralded the arrival of the AIDS epidemic.

Previous studies had indicated that in the United States HHV-8 was more common among people with many sexual partners.

But the study's lead author John Pauk said: "We found the virus in the mouth more often and in higher amounts than in genital secretions."

Research, carried out among 112 homosexual men in Seattle, found the virus present in about 40 percent who had HIV infection and about 20 percent of men without HIV.

"The issue that this paper raises is that kissing can also be a risk for a virus," added study co-author Anna Wald, director of the University of Washington Virology Research Clinic.

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