Full Library

Human herpes viruses are a family of double-stranded DNA viruses that cause opportunistic infections in solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. Alpha-herpesviruses cause localized ulcerative mucosal and vesicular cutaneous lesions, with the tendency to disseminate if not treated early and aggressively. Beta-herpes viruses, discussed in this chapter such as human herpes viruses 6 and 7, may rarely cause a febrile illness and a skin rash; however, HHV6 in recipients of allogeneic HSCT is well recognized to cause serious illness including viral hepatitis, encephalitis, and myelosuppression including loss of stem cell graft. The gamma-herpesvirus, HHV-8, causes Kaposi’s sarcoma and body cavity lymphoma, among other rare diseases mostly seen in patients with HIV/AIDS. This chapter will review the epidemiology, clinical diseases, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of six of the eight members of the human herpesvirus family, including HSV-1, HSV-2, VZV, HHV-6A and HHV-6B, HHV-7, and HHV-8.

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9034-4_39