I read with interest an article by Audouin et al [1] which appeared in your journal 2 years ago and was entitled Epstein–Barr virus and Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Cairo, Egypt. In the article, the authors quote a study from the United Arab Emirates [2] as reporting the association of Hodgkin lymphoma with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) in children in that country to be one of the lowest in the world which was 38 %. I looked at that study to find out that this figure represents all cases of EBV positive Hodgkin lymphoma which includes both adults and pediatrics. In fact, that was the total rate with the rate for children reported to be 60 %. In that case, United Arab Emirates children will be closer to children of the other Middle Eastern countries and not among the lowest in the world.

Another point which is clearly related to calculation error is the EBER positive rate in the subjects of the study. This figure appears in the text page 12 and Table 2 and as being 68 % although clearly it should be 62 and indeed it was mentioned elsewhere in the paper as such.