High prevalence of human herpesvirus type 8 infection in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Taiwan

Blood samples were collected from 101 untreated pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) patients and 101 age- and sex-matched healthy control subjects. TB patients had lower lymphocyte and a higher monocyte counts than control subjects (p < 0.0001 for both). The seropositive rate of human herpesvirus (HHV) type 8 antibody was higher in patients (30/101) than in control subjects (15/101) (p = 0.01). Antibody titres in patients also exceeded those in control subjects (p 0.006). Lymphocyte and monocyte counts between seronegative and seropositive subjects were not different. Four patients were positive for HHV-8 DNA. The study revealed a significantly higher HHV-8 seroprevalence in untreated pulmonary TB patients than in general population. Clinical Microbiology and Infection (C) 2014 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.