DESCRIPTION (adapted from the Abstract): The goal of this study is to
define the epidemiology of HIV-1 related Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) as it relates
to the putative causal agent, KS herpes virus (KSHV). A proposed historical
cohort study nested within the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), a
longitudinal prospective study of the natural history of HIV-1 infection in
homosexual/ bisexual men, will address these specific aims: (1) determine
the prevalence and incidence of KSHV infection in this population; (2)
determine the KSHV route of transmission and the concordance of
characteristics associated with the virus to risk factors for KS; (3)
determine rates and biological markers of progression to KS among KSHV
seropositive, HIV-1 infected homosexual men and factors which may modify
disease progression; (4) examine the effect of anti-retroviral and
anti-herpes treatments on KS disease progression in the presence of KSHV
infection; and (5) examine the health effects of KSHV in the absence of
HIV-1 and the effect of KSHV on HIV-1 progression independent of its role in
KS disease. Behaviors to be examined as risk factors include numbers of
male sexual partners and types of sexual activities (e.g., anal/genital
intercourse, anal/oral intercourse, genital/oral intercourse) and
recreational drug use (e.g., nitrite inhalants). Host characteristics
including age, race and immune status will be examined as effect modifiers
for viral acquisition and disease progression. The effects of other
environmental factors such as geographic location and co-infections will be
studied, also. KSHV serological testing will be performed on selected
visits for 414 HIV-1 seroconverters with known dates of seroconversion
within 1 year and a stratified random sample of 400 HIV-1 seroprevalent and
100 seronegative men. KSHV seroprevalence also will be determined in a
sample of injecting drug users from a cohort study with protocols similar as
the MACS. Establishing the epidemiology of the KSHV, consistent with
principles of causality, will provide direction for developing behavioral
and therapeutic interventions against the development of KS and will guide
virological and biological investigations determining the pathogenesis of
this disease.
Error Notice
The database may currently be offline for maintenance and should be operational soon. If not, we have been notified of this error and will be reviewing it shortly.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
- The DCCPS Team.
