Human Herpes Virus Type 6 and Febrile Convulsion

OBJECTIVE: Febrile Convulsion (FC) is occurred in 6 months to 5 yr old children. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HHV-6 infection in FC admitted patients of Bandar Abbas Children Hospital, southern Iran. MATERIALS & METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 118 children aged 6-60 months who had FC were selected by a simple random method in 2010-11. Demographic data, clinical manifestation and two blood samples gathered to assess the human herpes virus type 6 (HHV6). Blood sample obtained at the time of admission and 10 days after the first examination. ELISA was used to detect HHV-6 IgG. The subjects were studied in two groups with and without infection of HHV-6. Two groups were compared by t-test and X2. RESULTS: Fifty-three subjects completed the study, including 30 boys (56.6 %) and 23 girls (43.4%). The HHV-6 infection was detected in 23 patients out of 53 studied subjects. The mean of age for the groups with and without HHV-6 infection was 19.7±9.7 and 20.4±10.2 months old, respectively. The most common clinical presentation in both groups was rhinorrhea, diarrhea, vomiting and lethargy without any significant difference between two groups. Five patients (21.7%) in HHV-6 group and 1 patient (3.3%) in HHV-6 negative group had postictal phase more than 15 minutes (P<0.05). Convulsion within 1 hour from beginning of fever was more frequent in HHV-6 infection group than the other group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: There was not any difference in terms of age group, gender and clinical manifestation of infected and non-infected children with FC. Postictal phase and seizure during 1 hour after the fever were significantly different between two groups.