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Infections from herpes virus play a key role in post-transplantation pathology, so it is indispensable to characterize the group of would-be renal transplant recipients. IgG antibody titers were detected by indirect immunofluorescence to Herpes simplex virus, Epstein Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) in 100 patients treated with hemodialysis in the Nephrology Institute. The prevalence of antibodies to cytomegalovirus and to Herpes simplex and Epstein Barr viruses was 100% and 95% respectively. Average geometric titers (AGT) of antibodies to CMV were significantly higher. There was no correlation between AGT and sex, age, time of disease remission, number of blood transfusions and number of transplants.

The multiple polymerase chain reaction technique was used to detect in a single assay tube the presence of herpes simplex virus (HSV), Cytomegalovirus (CMV). Epstein Barr virus (EBV), varicella zoster virus (VZV), and/or human herpes virus-6 (HHV6). 50 cerebrospinal fluids from patients with AIDS and clinically suspected to have meningoencephalitis due to HSV were received and analyzed at the laboratories of Sexually Transmitted Diseases of the Virology Department of the "Pedro Kourí" Tropical Medicine Institute from 1993 to 1996. 4 of them were positive to HSV, 3 to CMV, 2 to VZV, and 1 to HHV6 for a positivity of 20%. The results of the PCR were correlated to the clinical findings presented by the patients at the time of the lumbar puncture. The introduction of this technique in the laboratory allows to have an easy, fast and useful tool for the diagnosis of meningoencephalitis due to herpesvirus.

The evolution serological response against the herpes simplex virus and citomegalovirus in HIV infected patients grouped into different stages of the disease was studied. Fluctuations in the TPG of antibodies were observed in these values in a cyclical way through time. There was a greater significant difference among the TPG of antibodies against HSV in the group of asymptomatic patients compared with AIDS patients and with those who died. There is a marked decrease in the TPG of antibodies against HSV and CMV approximately one year before the death of patients.

The titres of antibodies to the herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, and the antigen of viral envelope of Epstein-Barr virus were determined in serum samples from patients infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who belonged to groups II (n = 26) and IV (n = 32) according to the present Classification System of HIV infection, as well as in a group of blood donors (n = 52). The geometrical average titres obtained in the different agents were very high in patients having HIV infection with respect to the geometrical average titres observed in blood donors. Patients from group II had titres to the antigen of viral envelope of the Epstein-Barr virus significantly higher than blood donors. Levels of antibodies to these agents in patients from group IV were higher than levels obtained in blood donors. Differences regarding levels of the antigen of viral envelope of the Epstein-Barr virus were highly significant. These results suggest the possible relevance of the Epstein-Barr virus infection in the natural history of AIDS.