Gender differences in Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus infection in a population with schistosomiasis in rural China.

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causal agent of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a common cancer in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The risk factors for KSHV infection have been extensively studied for Western countries but remain largely undefined for other parts of the world. Schistosomiasis, caused by Schistosoma japonicum infection, was recently identified as a cofactor for KSHV infection in rural Egypt. In this study, we examined the seroprevalence of KSHV in a population along the Yangtze River in China that has a high incidence of schistosomiasis. KSHV seroprevalence in subjects with schistosomiasis was slightly higher than that in subjects without schistosomiasis, but the difference was not statistically significant (8.4% versus 6.6%; P = 0.204). However, after adjusting for gender, KSHV seroprevalence in men with schistosomiasis was found to be significantly higher than that in men without schistosomiasis (8.4% versus 2.8%; odds ratio [OR], 3.170; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.501-6.694; P = 0.002). Compared to men, women showed significantly higher seroprevalence of KSHV (5.9% versus 9.3%; OR, 1.621; 95% CI, 1.084-2.425; P = 0.019).