International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 19, Number 4 > Pp. 272-278

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Original research articles

Herpes simplex virus seroprevalence among children, adolescents and adults in Greece

H Papadogeorgakis MD PhD ^* , C Caroni PhD , A Katsambas MD ^* , J M Pimenta PhD , C Avdeliodi MD ^**, T Kotrotsou MD , E Frangoulis MD PhD ^*  and J S Smith PhD MPH  

^* Department of Microbiology; Department of Dermatology, ‘A. Sygros’ Dermatology Hospital, University of Athens; Department of Mathematics, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece; Worldwide Epidemiology, GlaxoSmithKline, Greenford, UK; ^** ‘H. Venizelos’ Maternity Hospital; ‘Agia Sophia’ University Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece; Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, NC, USA

Correspondence to: Dr Jennifer S Smith, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA Email: JenniferS{at}unc.edu

The aim was to study the type-specific seroprevalence of Herpes simplex virus (HSV)-1 and HSV-2 infections and the associated risk factors in children, adolescents and adults in Greece. A total of 1867 serum samples from children, adolescents and adults of both genders aged from 0 to 60 years were collected from three large hospital-referral centres in Athens. All sera were tested for type-specific antibodies to HSV-1 and HSV-2 using HerpeSelect IgG ELISA tests (Focus Diagnostics Cypress, Cal, USA). Overall age-adjusted seroprevalence of HSV-1 and HSV-2 was 72.0% and 10.2%, respectively. HSV-1 seropositivity was low in children up to nine years of age, increased sharply in adolescence, and was higher in females than males in each group surveyed. HSV-2 seropositivity was low (0.8%) below 20 years of age and increased to a maximum prevalence of 18.7% in men and 22.7% in women. Multivariate risk factor analyses indicated that HSV-1 seropositivity was associated with socioeconomic indicators (e.g. lower educational level, residency outside greater Athens), whereas HSV-2 was associated with sexual behavioural factors (e.g. being divorced, greater number of lifetime sexual partners). HSV-2 risk factor profiles were similar in women and in men. This first large seroprevalence study in Greece showed a high age-standardized HSV-1 seropositivity after adolescence and a relatively low age-standardized HSV-2 seroprevalence from birth to 60 years of age. Dual seropositivity to HSV-1 and HSV-2 was low (0.6%) in females under 20 years of age, suggesting that the potential use of an HSV-2 prophylactic vaccine in adolescents could reduce the spread of HSV-2 infection.

Key Words: Herpes simplex virus • seroprevalence • risk factors • Greece

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