Human Herpesvirus 8 seroprevalence among blood donors in Mali.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) is endemic but with disparities between regions and population studied. Although the virus remains mostly latent, there is some evidence that blood transfusion may represents one of the transmission way for this virus. Here, we evaluated HHV-8 seroprevalence among blood donors in Mali. This cross-sectional study recruited blood donors from the Blood Transfusion Center at Gabriel Touré Hospital, Bamako. Serum was used for the detection of latent HHV-8 immunoglobulin G directed against latent associated nuclear antigen 1 by an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), HCV, and Treponema pallidum were also screened. HHV-8 seroprevalence was 10.4% in Malian blood donors. None of the sociodemographic characteristics were associated with HHV-8 infection, although there is a tendency of a higher HHV-8 seroprevalence among participants living in Bamako than those not living there. One individual had coinfection HHV-8/HBV, another HHV-8/HCV while another had HCV and T. pallidum. None has been tested positive for HIV infection. This intermediate seroprevalence in Malian blood donors suggests that the risk of HHV-8 transmission by transfusion should be considered. Further investigations are needed to assess impact of HHV-8 in polytransfused patients residing in an endemic area for this virus.

Seroprevalence of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus among people living with HIV in Brazzaville, Congo and among blood donors in Bamako, Mali.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) is the causative agent of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a highly contagious and potentially fatal emerging disease. We assessed CCHFV seroprevalence by conducting a serological survey of two cohorts from Brazzaville, Congo and Bamako, Mali. We retrospectively screened 581 sera samples, including 352 from monitoring centers for people living with HIV (PLWH) in Brazzaville and 229 provided by the Blood Transfusion Center at Gabriel Touré Hospital in Bamako. An ELISA kit (ID Screen® CCHF Double Antigen Multi-species, Innovative Diagnostics) was used to detect total anti-CCHFV antibodies in serum. CCHFV seroprevalence was 0.6% in the PLWH cohort in Brazzaville, all in a peri­urban area near livestock/agriculture, and 1.75% in a cohort of blood donors in Bamako, half living in a peri­urban area near livestock/agriculture and the others performing risk-exposure activities, such as working as a butcher or with frequent rural travels. PLWH from Brazzaville were mostly female, older, and more highly educated, with a tertiary sector activity and living in an urban biotope without livestock/agricultural activities in the surroundings, in contrast to the blood donors of Bamako, who were younger and more likely to live in peri­urban/rural areas with livestock/agricultural activities in the surroundings. Despite a low CCHFV seroprevalence, our study indicates human contact with CCHFV in sub-urban areas of the capital cities of Congo and Mali associated with previously described CCHFV risk factors.

Comparative Performance of Anyplex II HPV28 and Cobas 4800 Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Assays for High-Risk HPV Detection in Self-collected Anal Samples.

We compared 2 human papillomavirus (HPV) assays to detect the 14 high-risk HPV (hrHPV) genotypes in self-collected anal samples. We found a good agreement and similar performance to detect HPV-16, HPV-18, and the 12 other hrHPV genotypes. The global performance to detect the 14 hrHPV genotypes was not significantly different between the 2 assays.

Seroprevalence and molecular diversity of Human Herpesvirus 8 among people living with HIV in Brazzaville, Congo.

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV8) is endemic in Africa, although studies of this infection are rare in Congo. We evaluated seroprevalence and HHV-8 diversity among people living with HIV. We included 353 patients receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy. Antibodies against HHV-8 latency-associated nuclear antigen were detected by indirect immunofluorescence. In HHV-8 positive patients, we performed HHV-8 quantification in blood and saliva by real-time PCR and typing by Sanger sequencing of K1 open reading frame. HHV-8 seroprevalence was 19%, being male (odd ratio [OR] = 1.741, [95% Confidence interval {CI}, 0.97-3.07]; p = 0.0581) and having multiple sex partners before HIV diagnosis (OR = 1.682, [CI 95%, 0.97-2.92]; p = 0.0629) tended to be associated with HHV-8 seropositivity. Of the 64 HHV-8 seropositive patients, HHV-8 DNA was detected in 10 (16%) in saliva, 6 (9%) in whole-blood and in 2 (3%) in both whole-blood and saliva. Three out of 6 HHV-8 strains were subtypes A5, 2 subtype B1 and 1 subtype C. HHV-8 seroprevalence was relatively low with more frequent carriage in men, associated with asymptomatic oral excretion and a predominance of subtype A5. These data tend to support the hypothesis of horizontal transmission in people living with HIV in Brazzaville.