Prevalences of human herpesvirus 6 and human herpesvirus 7 in normal Thai population

Prevalences of human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) DNA were investigated in normal Thai population. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and saliva were collected from 238 healthy adults in five provinces which might be a representative of each part of the country, and 120 normal children in one province. Prevalences of HHV-6 DNA PBMC were 45.5-74.3% in adults and 78.3% in children, and in saliva, very low prevalences were detected; 5.7-8.6% in adults and 15.0% in children, respectively. Additionally, all HHV-6 DNA detected in this study were variant B. Comparingly to those of HHV-7 DNA, the prevalences were significantly higher than those of HHV-6, ie, 82.9-91.4% in PBMC of adults, 85% in PBMC of children, 84.8-89.0% in saliva of adults and 92.5% in saliva of children. HHV-6 and HHV-7 isolation from saliva specimens were also performed. No HHV-6 could be isolated from any samples, whereas, in the present study, HHV-7 could be isolated as 90.0% from children and as 20.0-54.5% from adults.