Evidence of shared Epstein-Barr viral isolates between sexual partners, and low level EBV in genital secretions.
J Med Virol
; 78(9): 1204-9, 2006 Sep.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-16847960
Epstein-Barr virus is present in the saliva of most persistently infected individuals and is generally thought to be spread by close oral contact. However, there are now several reports of EBV in genital secretions, suggesting the possibility of sexual transmission between adults. The present study was undertaken to investigate the risk of sexual transmission of EBV. PCR analysis was used to examined the degree to which a group (n = 11) of patients with infectious mononucleosis (IM) shared the same viral isolates as their sexual partners, and compare this to the extent of isolate sharing among a different group (n = 18) of IM patients and their non-sexual contacts. There was significantly more sharing of EBV isolates among the IM/sexual-contact pairs than among the IM/non-sexual-contact pairs (P = 0.0012). Female cervical (n = 84), male urethral (n = 55), and semen (n = 30) samples from asymptomatic, unselected volunteers were analyzed for the presence of EBV DNA, revealing 7%, 5%, and 3% to be EBV positive, respectively. Fractionation of cervical and urethral samples into cellular and supernatant fluid components showed EBV to be mainly cell-associated. Quantitation of EBV in these samples gave levels of below 10 EBV genomes per microg of DNA. Overall the findings support the possibility that EBV could on occasions be transmitted sexually, however, the low levels detected in genital secretions compared to saliva suggest that this is not a major transmission route. The finding of small quantities of cell-associated virus suggests a latent infection; thus EBV is probably in the B lymphocyte rather than in the epithelial cell component of the secretions.
Buscar en Google
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Semen
/
Uretra
/
Enfermedades Virales de Transmisión Sexual
/
Cuello del Útero
/
Herpesvirus Humano 4
/
Transmisión de Enfermedad Infecciosa
/
Mononucleosis Infecciosa
Tipo de estudio:
Clinical_trials
/
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Región como asunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Med Virol
Año:
2006
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Reino Unido
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos