Infection with Human Herpes Virus 8 in Solid-Organ Transplant Donors May Cause Severe Disease in Recipients

More than one third of seronegative transplant recipients developed a severe inflammatory syndrome after receiving an organ from a seropositive donor.

Infection with human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) occurs in 1% to 3% of the adult European and U.S. populations; associated diseases include Kaposi sarcoma (KS), body-cavity lymphoma, and multicentric Castleman disease. Also, immunocompromised patients can experience disseminated infection (KS-associated inflammatory cytokine syndrome [KICS]), characterized by fever, lymphadenopathy, pancytopenia, and splenomegaly. Now, researchers at a transplant center in Italy report their experience with HHV-8 serologic, clinical, and virologic monitoring among 1963 solid-organ transplant (SOT) recipients and 1580 donors from 2011 to 2023.

Baseline HHV-8 seroprevalence was 3.3% in donors and 8.4% in recipients. HHV-8 transmission occurred in 45% of 49 seronega…

Reviewing Author

Daniel Kaul, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNobelpharma; Pfizer

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesAmerican Society of Transplantation (Program Committee)

Daniel Kaul, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNobelpharma; Pfizer

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesAmerican Society of Transplantation (Program Committee)

Infection with Human Herpes Virus 8 in Solid-Organ Transplant Donors May Cause Severe Disease in Recipients

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Reviewing Author