TABLE 1.
Distribution of positive results for HIV-1, cytomegalovirus, human herpesvirus 6, Epstein-Barr virus, and Plasmodium DNA in dried blood spot samples
| Organism | No. (%) of samples yielding result |
Pa | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HIV negative (n = 382 [82.3%]) | HIV positive (n = 26 [5.6%]) | Inconclusive (n = 56 [12.1%]) | ||
| HIVb | 0 (0) | 26 (100) | 0 (0) | NA |
| Cytomegalovirus | 38 (9.9) | 4 (15.3) | 5 (8.9) | NS |
| Human herpesvirus 6 | 0 (0) | 1 (3.8) | 0 (0) | NS |
| Epstein-Barr virus | 11 (2.9)c | 3 (11.5) | 10 (17.8)d | <0.03 |
| Plasmodium spp. | 11 (2.9) | 2 (7.6) | 24 (42.8) | <0.01 |
Determined by the χ2 test. A P value of <0.05 is considered significant. NA, not applicable; NS, not significant.
For HIV-1, the use of the NEC152 and NEC131 primer set and the NEC-LTR probe in the long terminal repeat gene allowed us to detect accurately the majority of HIV-1 subtypes of group M circulating in sub-Saharan Africa, including subtypes A, B, C, D, and G, as well as circulating recombinant forms 02 and 11 (20).
Two Epstein-Barr virus-positive DBS samples from HIV-negative individuals were also positive for Plasmodium spp.
Nine Epstein-Barr virus-positive DBS samples from individuals with inconclusive sera were also positive for Plasmodium spp.