Human herpesvirus 8 seroprevalence and viral load in healthy adult blood donors

Abstract

Despite a relatively high HHV-8 seroprevalence in this cohort of Houston area blood donors, HHV-8 DNA was not detected in any sample of donor whole blood using a highly sensitive PCR assay. Thus, at least in the southeast Texas region, large-scale screening of blood donor units for HHV-8 antibody or DNA seems unwarranted.