Seroepidemiology of herpes virus infections among dental personnel
Related Experiment Videos
A M Herbert1, J Bagg, D M Walker
1Department of Oral Surgery, Medicine and Pathology, Cardiff Dental School, UK.
Objectives:
To examine the possible occupational hazard of infection with human herpes viruses among dental personnel.
Methods:
Sera from 81 preclinical dental students, 53 clinical dental students and 103 qualified dental surgeons were tested for antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and human herpes virus type 6 (HHV-6). The same number of control subjects, matched individually for age (+/- 1 year), sex and social class, was also examined. Antibodies were detected by ELISA for HSV-1, latex agglutination for CMV, indirect immunofluorescence with P3HR1 cells for EBV and indirect immunofluorescence with infected JJhan cells for HHV-6. Each participant also completed a questionnaire to permit correlation of demographic data and risk factors with serological results.
Results:
No significant difference in seroprevalence was detected between any of the dental groups and their respective controls. There was a significantly higher prevalence of antibodies to EBV among clinical students (P = 0.02) and qualified dentists (P = 0.0003) than among preclinical students. These significant increases were not mirrored in the three corresponding control groups.
Conclusion:
The results suggest a possible occupational risk of infection with EBV in dentists. There was no evidence for a significant risk of occupational infection with HSV-1, CMV or HHV-6.