Human infection of herpesvirus-6 and herpesvirus-7 in Iranian patients with neurological illness

Abstract

Mostafa Seyed

Human herpes virus-6 (HHV-6) and HHV-7 have been implicated as causes of meningitis and encephalitis in children and adults. In this study the presence HHV-6 and HHV-7 DNA were tested in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample taken from Iranian children, suffered from meningoencephalitis. From 2007 to 2009, 150 patients from Tehran with meningoencephalits who were referred to a pediatric ward in Rasoul Akram hospital, Tehran Iran, were enrolled in the present study. Conventional and BACTEC Ped Plus medium were used in conjunction with latex agglutination test and real time PCR for detection of HHV-6 and HHV-7 DNA in clinical specimen. All type of human herpes virus DNA was detected in 12 % (18/150) cases. HHV-6 DNA was detected in 4.7% and HHV-7 DNA was detected in 2 cases (1.4%). Human herpes virus-6 and HHV-7 DNA was detected in 6% of all studied cases. HHV-6 was slightly more frequent than HHV-7. Our findings were lower than the rate of other references but were higher than the findings of previous study in Iran. This variation might be due to differences in methods, age of study cases or epidemiologic and geographic variation.