A French group led by Dr. Vincent Descamps has found preliminary evidence suggesting that PCR saliva testing is useful for the detection of herpesvirus reactivation among patients with drug hypersensitivity syndromes such as DIHS/DRESS.  The PCR assay used in the study demonstrated shedding of HHV-7, EBV, HHV-6, and CMV.  Herpesvirus reactivation, in particular HHV-6, is a hallmark of drug hypersensitivity conditions, and has been shown to contribute to increasingly severe clinical outcomes.  The group has now initiated a large therapeutic prospective study to determine the effectiveness of various treatment regimens - including antiviral treatments for patients with betaherpesvirus reactivation - to limit the clinical severity of DIHS/DRESS.  READ MORE

A group from Children’s Heart Centre in Lund, Sweden, has used Artesunate as an effective antiviral therapy to aid in the treatment of a child with HHV-6B myocarditis.  Artesunate is a drug used globally for the treatment of malaria that has recently shown efficacy against HHV-6 in vitro and is being explored in several centers for the compassionate-use treatment of drug-resistant CMV.  This is the first case to describe the use of Artesunate for the clinical treatment of HHV-6B.  READ MORE

A group from Fujita Health University has identified the first known case of posterior reversible encephaliopathy syndrome (PRES) associated with HHV-6B encephalitis in a child following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).  PRES is a syndrome characterized by headaches, confusion, seizures and visual disturbances associated with transient, predominantly posterior white matter changes on neuroimaging studies, and has been associated with a number of medical conditions and clinical settings. READ MORE