Outbreaks of human-herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) infection in day-care centers in Belém, Pará, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Freitas, Ronaldo Barros de
• Data de Publicação: 2000
• Outros Autores: Monteiro, Talita Antônia Furtado, Linhares, Alexandre da Costa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Digital do Instituto Evandro Chagas (Patuá)
• Texto Completo: https://patua.iec.gov.br/handle/iec/3285
• topic: Herpesvirus Humano 6; Ensaio de Imunoadsorção Enzimática; Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase; Surtos de Doenças; Hospital Dia

A total of 730 children aged less than 7 years, attending 8 day-care centers (DCCs) in Belém, Brazil were followed-up from January to December 1997 to investigate the occurrence of human-herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) infection in these institutional settings. Between October and December 1997 there have been outbreaks of a febrile- and -exanthematous disease, affecting at least 15-20 per cent of children in each of the DCCs. Both serum- and- plasma samples were obtained from 401 (55 per cent) of the 730 participating children for the detection of HHV-6 antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and viral DNA amplification through the nested-PCR. Recent HHV-6 infection was diagnosed in 63.8 per cent (256/401) of them, as defined by the presence of both IgM and IgGspecific antibodies (IgM+/IgG+); of these, 114 (44.5 per cent) were symptomatic and 142 (55.5 per cent) had no symptoms (p = 0.03). A subgroup of 123 (30.7 per cent) children were found to be IgM-/IgG+, whereas the remaining 22 (5.5 per cent) children had neither IgM nor IgG HHV-6- antibodies (IgM-/IgG-). Of the 118 children reacting strongly IgM-positive (≥ 30 PANBIO units), 26 (22.0 per cent) were found to harbour the HHV-6 DNA, as demonstrated by nested-PCR. Taken the ELISA-IgM- and- nested PCR-positive results together, HHV-6 infection was shown to have occurred in 5 of the 8 DCCs under follow-up. Serological evidence of recent infections by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and parvovirus B19 were identified in 2.0 per cent (8/401) and 1.5 per cent (6/401) of the children, respectively. Our data provide strong evidence that HHV-6 is a common cause of outbreaks of febrile/exanthematous diseases among children attending DCCs in the Belém area.