prevalence of anti-human herpes virus type 7 igg positivity rate among children with fever and skin rash in diyala province, iraq

Human herpesvirus 7 (hhv-7) is a t-lymphotropic virus isolated from peripheral blood mononuclear cells as beta herpes viruses. it is a highly prevalent virus since over 90% of adults are seropositive. the majority of primary infection occurs in early childhood, and its prevalence peaks at 60 % in 11–13-year-old. this study was designed to investigate the seroprevalence of hhv- 7 infections among apparently healthy children as well as child patients with fever and skin rash in the diyala community and its association with certain socio-demographic variables. the current study is a cross-sectional study conducted in diyala province-iraq, extending from july 2020 to march 2021. a total of 180 child patients with fever and skin rash were included. their age range was 1-14years. additionally, 60 healthy age-matched children were enrolled as a control group. a special questionnaire was prepared for this study, including socio-demographic information, clinical notes and the results of a complete blood count. human privacy was esteemed by obtaining parents’ verbal approval. blood specimen was aspirated from all study groups. sera were separated and kept at -20 0c until tested. enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) kits for the detection of anti-hhv-7 igg were used (mybiosource-china). statistical analysis was done using statistical package of social science (spss) version 27, and the p value was considered significant wherever it was less than 0.05. the anti-hhv-7 igg positivity rate in patients was 19.4%, and that in healthy individuals was 31.7%, with an insignificant difference (p=0.051). the highest hhv-7 igg positivity rate was found among patients 1-4 years old, matching that in the healthy group with a statistically insignificant difference (p=0.675). the gender, residence and number of children/ family insignificantly affect the distribution of hhv-7 igg in the control group. the mean±sd of hemoglobulin (hb) concentration among participants with negative anti-hhv-7 igg was insignificant compared to their positive counterparts (p=0.987). the mean±sd of total wbc count among those positive for anti-hhv-7 igg was insignificantly higher than their negative counterpart (p=0.945). the mean±sd lymphocyte count in patients and healthy control positive for anti-hhv-7 igg were insignificantly higher (p=0.241) and (p=0.344), respectively. lastly, healthy control positive for anti-hhv-7 igg had insignificantly higher lymphocyte count (p=0.710). about one-third of healthy children in our community were seropositive for anti-hhv 7 igg antibodies that are most prevalent at 1-4 years old and are insignificantly associated with gender, residence, and the number of children per family. furthermore, the hhv-7 infection is insignificantly associated with alterations of complete blood count parameters.