Human herpes virus 8 infection in kidney transplant patients in Belgium.

Kaposi sarcoma (KS) may arise as a complication of kidney transplantation. In the Saint Luc Teaching Hospital in Brussels, patients of both Belgian and foreign origin are treated. The prevalence of human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) infection differs in different geographical settings. We wanted to estimate the background infection rate and the risk of infection in our transplant population: a first step towards evaluating the necessity of HHV-8 screening. Serum samples were taken from 210 organ donors over a period of 7 years (30 per year) and from 200 kidney recipients from whom two sera were test... Mehr ...