Introduction: Polyomavirus BK (BKPyV) and JC (JCPyV) are persistent pathogens able to reactivate in im-munocompromised patients, involving mostly urinary and central nervous system. There are no Chilean studies in HIV positive patients.
Objective: To detect BKPyV and JCPyV in blood of Chilean HIV positive adult patients and to correlate these results with clinical-related variables.
Materials and methods: 96 stored blood samples from HIV patients belonging to the north area of Santiago were analyzed. Viral genomes of both viruses were detected by real-time PCR. For statistical analysis, chi-square (Pearson) and Mann-Whitney tests were used and p-values < 0.05 were considered significant.
Results: 33% of the samples were positive for BKPyV and a significant correlation was found between the presence of BKPyV genome and the absence of detectable HIV viral load. We demonstrated the need to consider more than one amplification target to detect the BKPyV genome. All the samples were negative for JCPyV genome.
Discussion: BKPyV prevalence in Chilean HIV patients is higher than most of international studies. New studies regarding the interaction between both viruses are required. These patients should undergo periodic evaluations by urologist and nephrologist.