A Study of HHA-8 Seroprevalence in Korean Health Care Workers

Woo-Chul Joo; Yong-Jun Choi; Jae-Eun Park; Hye-Myung Lee; Jin-Soo Lee; Moon-Hyun Cheong; Ji-Hye Moon; Soo-Mi Kim

doi:10.3947/ic.2008.40.4.246

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Joo, Choi, Park, Lee, Lee, Cheong, Moon, and Kim: A Study of HHA-8 Seroprevalence in Korean Health Care Workers

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Infection and Chemotherapy

Infection and Chemotherapy 2008; 40(4): 246-247.

Published online: 31 August 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2008.40.4.246

A Study of HHA-8 Seroprevalence in Korean Health Care Workers

Woo-Chul Joo, M.D.¹, Yong-Jun Choi, M.D.¹, Jae-Eun Park, M.D.¹, Hye-Myung Lee¹, Jin-Soo Lee, M.D.¹, Moon-Hyun Cheong, M.D.¹, Ji-Hye Moon², Soo-Mi Kim²

¹Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inha University, Korea.

²Department of Infection Control, Inha University, Inchon, Korea.

Correspondence: Jin-Soo, Lee, M.D. Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inha University, Shinheung-dong, Jung-go, Incheon 400-712, Korea. Tel: +82-32-890-3616, Fax: +82-32-882-6578, ljinsoo@medimail.co.kr

Received 10 June 2008 Accepted 1 August 2008

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

HHV-8 virus is known to be associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) in HIV seropositive patients and its seroprevalence has geographic difference. In South Korea, incidence of KS is low not only in general population but also in HIV patients compared to other countries. It is speculated that low seroprevalence of HHV-8 has contributed to the low incidence of KS in South Korea. We examined the seroprevalence of anti HHV-8 IgG of HIV seronegative health care workers in one University hospital. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) was used for diagnosis. One person (0.6%, 1/164) was seropositive, six were equivocal (3.7%, 6/164) and 157 people were seronegative (95.73%, 157/164). This study revealed that seroprevalence of HHV-8 in general population was low in South Korea. Further studies are needed to be carried out to evaluate the low HHV-8 seroprevalence in Korea.

Keywords: Herpesvirus 8, Hunman, Seroprevalence, Korea

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Distribution of HHV-8 IgG in Health Care Worker of South Korea

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