Seroprevalence of Human Herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) among Children Attending an Emergency Room in South-Eastern Nigeria

Summary: The seroprevalence of Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) was studied in 56 children aged two to 14 years. Subjects were children seen consecutively in the Children Emergency Room of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital in January 2000. Sera from the children were screened for antibodies to the small capsid related protein encoded by ORF 65 (Lytic antigen) by the ELISA technique and Latency Associated Nuclear Antigen (LANA) by the immunoflourescent assay. Of the 56 children, 42 (76.9 per cent) had antibodies to at least, one of the antigens. The rate of infection correlated positively with age (r= 0.45; p