The Significance Of Human Herpesvirus-7 Infection In Febrile Diseases Of Infants Of Guangzhou

We conduct this experiment to elucidate the Human Herpesvirus-7 (HHV-7) infection rate in infants' febrile diseases in Guangzhou, and to obtain the significance of HHV-7 infection in these diseases, then enrich our knowledge of pathogen of these diseases. A total of 289 saliva specimens and 167 plasma specimens were enrolled in this experiment. The specimens were divided into three groups: healthy controls, disease controls and febrile disease group. PCR and n-PCR were used to identify the existence of HHV-7. Plasma Ig-M antibody against Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was detected at the same time.The results indicate that the HHV-7 positive rates of saliva specimens of disease controls, healthy controls and febrile disease group are 64.2%, 59.2%, 71.9% respectively. There was no statistical significance when they were compared with each other. The HHV-7 positive rates of plasma specimens of disease controls, healthy controls and febrile disease group are 0.0%, 5.4%, 18.0% respectively. The difference was significant when febrile disease group was compared to disease controls, healthy controls respectively. With the development of the age the HHV-7 positive rates were increased in saliva specimens, but not in plasma samples. As for the HCMV-IgM, the positive rates in disease controls and febrile disease group are 12.2%, 19.1% respectively. The difference between these two groups was not statistically significant. In this experiment, the saliva was collected by the placement of sterile swab in the mouth until the swab was dampened. The saliva specimens collected by this way were detected for HHV-7, the total positive rate is 65.1%, which is similar to the results reported abroad. The sequencing of the PCR products showed that the sequence of the PCR products was coincident with the sequence of HHV-7 U51,which is published by GeneBank.It can be concluded that in Guangzhou, the infection of HHV-7 in infants is popular. HHV-7 infection is associated with infants' febrile diseases. The HHV-7 infection associated with can be primary infection or reactivation of HHV-7 latent infection. We did not find gene mutation in U51 ORF of HHV-7, which was derived from Guangzhou patients. In our study, we did not find that HCMV had important role in the pathogenesis of febrile diseases in infants.