Human herpes virus 6 in patients with blood system diseases during chemotherapy courses and after autologous blood stem cell transplantation

The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of Human Herpes Virus 6 (HHV6) infection in  immunocompromised patients and to analyze the efficiency of the antiviral treatment. In retrospective study 273 patients with hematological disorders were analyzed from Jan 2013 to Jul 2017 (72 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 141 case – with acute myeloid leukemia, 15 cases with high-grade B-cell lymphoma (BCL), 45 aplastic anemia patients. 25 patients underwent autologous stem cell transplantation  (19 with ALL, 6 with BCL). DNA of HHV6 was detected in 32.9% of patients, including 11 patients after transplantation. However, the detection of HHV6 with clinical symptoms was identified only in 26 (9.5%) of 273 patients. Febrile neutropenia, hemorrhagic cystitis, enteropathy, pneumonia, 1 case of encephalitis and 1 case of severe cutaneous HHV6 lesion were detected as clinical manifestations of the infection. The importance  of prolonged intravenous antiviral treatment was demonstrated. Thus, HHV6 DNA is detected in large percent of cases in hematological patients but its clinical manifestation is not seen very often. The early prolonged and adequate treatment reduces the risks of complications.

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