United Press International - November 8, 2000

The finding suggests that patients, whose immune systems are suppressed either to prevent rejection of donor organs or because of aggressive treatment for cancer, "may have an increased risk for complications from human herpes virus-8 infection," commented Dr. Edward Chapnick, director of infectious diseases at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn.

In an interview with United Press International, Chapnick said that HHV-8 is associated with the skin cancer called Kaposi's sarcoma. In the United States HHV-8 is usually found only in "homosexual men," said Chapnick, but in Italy and Africa the infection is common among heterosexuals. He said that among most people "there are no symptoms or manifestations of infection. It is silent."

As an international group of researchers will report Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, two Italian men who received kidneys from the same donor -- an Italian man who died after a stroke -- developed HHV-8 infection after transplant. One kidney recipient was treated for Kaposi's sarcoma and the other died following after a month long viral-like illness.

The organ donor, the researchers report, was infected with HHV-8 and the viral strain in the recipients was genetically traced to the donor.

In the other case, also in Italy, a man with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma developed active HHV-8 infection after a transplant with his own stem cells. The man died 151 days after transplant and researchers said detected latent HHV-8 infection in his blood before transplant.

Chapnick, who was not involved in the study, said "I think what is happening is that the immunosuppression is the trigger for HHV-8." He pointed out that in the United States, "HHV-8 leads to Kaposi's sarcoma only in persons who are immunosuppressed due to HIV infection."

Dr. Nell S. Lurain, an immunologist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center Chicago, agreed with Chapnick.

"Again, this is an immunosuppressed population. When you are infected with HHV-8, you are infected for life but the difficulty arises when the infected host is immunocompromised." Lurain said the HHV-8 risks associated with transplant or aggressive cancer therapy are "more likely to affect the populations in Italy and Africa than in the United States."

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