RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: With the spread of AIDS, many HIV-infected women have been diagnosed with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), especially in Africa. Since the discovery of a novel herpesvirus as the causative agent of KS (human herpesvirus 8 - HHV-8) several seroepidemiological studies have been conducted to identify groups at risk for KS. The risk for women in Brazil has not been studied. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched for HHV-8 antibodies in sera obtained from a bank made up of samples from 3 groups of individuals: Group I: 163 HIV-1-infected women attended at an ambulatory clinic in 1994; Group II: 108 children born to HIV-1-infected mothers from 1990 to 1992, their antibodies reflected maternal infection, and Group III: 630 HIV-1-seronegative, healthy women. In-house immunofluorescence and Western-Blot assays based on the BCBL-1 cell line were used to detect anti-latent and anti-lytic HHV-8 antibodies. RESULTS: Group I had an overall frequency of antibodies of 8.6 percent, with a 1.2 percent frequency of anti-latent antibodies and an 8.0 percent frequency of anti-lytic antibodies. Similar results were detected in Group II, i.e., no cases with anti-latent antibodies and a 7.4 percent frequency of anti-lytic antibodies. In contrast, prevalences of 1.1 percent anti-latent antibodies and 0.3 percent anti-lytic antibodies were observed in Group III. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiologic pattern of HHV-8 in women from São Paulo varies according to behavioral factors, with emphasis on the sexual and blood routes of virus transmission/acquisition. Although HHV-8 anti-lytic antibodies were found in HIV-1-infected women, no case of KS was detected. Protective factors against KS are probably related to gender and/or to antiretroviral therapies introduced in Brazil since 1994.