Human herpesvirus 8 is not associated with Kawasaki disease

A meta-analysis on association between viral infections and Kawasaki disease in children

Aim: To investigate the association between different viral infections and the development of Kawasaki disease (KD) in children. Materials & methods: Electronic databases were searched for relevant studies published from inception to May 2020. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) of the association of different viral pathogens with KD were estimated using a random-effects model weighted by the inverse variance method. Results: The strongest associations were found between KD and human parvovirus B19 viremia (OR = 41.05; 95% CI: 5.13–328.28; I-square = 0%), EBV IgM seropositivity (OR = 7.18; 95% CI: 3.65–14.12, I-square = 0%) and human herpesvirus-6 IgG seropositivity (OR = 5.83; 95% CI: 1.06–32.01). Conclusion: Human parvovirus B19, EBV and human herpesvirus-6 are highly suspected to be key contributors to the development of KD.

Perinatal exposures and Kawasaki disease in Washington State: a population-based, case-control study

BACKGROUND

This study tested the hypothesis that selected perinatal exposures are associated with Kawasaki Disease (KD) in later childhood.

METHODS

A retrospective, population-based, case-control study was performed. Children hospitalized for KD in Washington State from 1987 to 2007 (n = 995) were identified through hospital discharge records and were linked to birth certificates and birth hospitalization discharge records. Controls were randomly selected from remaining birth records. Maternal and infant exposure information was obtained from hospital discharge records. Unconditional logistic regression was used to obtain adjusted relative risk estimates and to explore the effect of gender on observed associations.

RESULTS

After adjusting for race, gender and birth year, the following were significantly associated with KD: maternal age ≥35 years (odds ratio [OR] 1.65; [95% confidence interval: 1.20-2.27]); mother of foreign birth (OR 1.36; [1.06-1.75]); maternal Group B streptococcal colonization (OR 0.51; [0.26-0.97]); and early infancy hospitalization (OR 1.42; [1.04-1.93]). Early hospitalization for bacterial illness was associated with a 2.8-fold increased risk of KD (OR 2.84; [1.59-5.06]). There was weak evidence to suggest that the association between early hospitalization and KD varies by gender.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides preliminary evidence of association between certain perinatal exposures and KD and raises the possibility of late biological effects of immune exposures during infancy. The association between KD and early infectious exposures deserves further study.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus: clinical, diagnostic, and epidemiological aspects

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHI) is one of the few viruses proven to be associated with tumorigenesis in humans. Its causal association with all clinical and epidemiological variants of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is well established. KSHV is also involved in the pathogenesis of primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and a subset of multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD). Possible associations of KSHV with other clinical settings have been extensively examined. The findings from several of these studies are contradictory and are yet to be resolved. Concentrated effort over the last decade, since the initial discovery of KSHV, led to the development of several experimental systems that resulted in a better comprehension of the biological characteristics of KSHV and set the stage for the understanding of mechainisms by which diseases are induced by the virus. The development of molecular, histological, and serological tools for KSHV diagnosis allowed researchers to track the transmission and to study the epidemiology of KSHV. These assays have been applied, in particular in ambiguous cases, in order to confirm clinically and pathologically based diagnoses. Here, we review the advances in the clinical, experimental, diagnostic, and epidemiological research of KSHV.