Relative prevalence and risk factors of HTLV-I and HTLV-II infection in US blood donors.

Abstract

The clinical significance of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) infection, unlike that of HTLV-I, is unknown, and the major known association of HTLV-II seropositivity is with intravenous drug abuse. Screening of blood donors for HTLV-I, now routine in North America, does not distinguish this retrovirus from HTLV-II. To find out more about the seroepidemiology of and risk factors for HTLV I and II, blood from 480,000 volunteer donors in five geographically separate US urban centres was tested for antibodies to HTLV-I/II and HIV-1. Confirmed HTLV-I/II seropositive donors were then followed up by DNA amplification to distinguish type I from type II and by interviews focusing on possible risk factors. HTLV seroprevalence was 3.3 times greater than that for HIV-1 (0.043% vs 0.013%). DNA amplification on 65 of the 207 HTLV-I/II seropositive donors revealed that 34 (52%) had HTLV-II infection and 28 (43% had HTLV-I; 3 samples were uninformative. Interviews of 49 donors showed that whereas HTLV-I was principally associated with donor origin from endemic regions, the major risk factor for HTLV-II infection was intravenous drug use. The surprisingly high rate of HTLV-II infection in US blood donors raises important public health and donor counselling issues since HTLV-I infection is associated with adult T-cell leukaemia and a neurological disorder while the pathogenicity of HTLV-II is as yet unclear.

• Authors: H H Lee, P Swanson, J D Rosenblatt, I S Chen, W C Sherwood, D E Smith, G E Tegtmeier, L P Fernando, C T Fang, M Osame
• Journal: Lancet (London, England) (Lancet) Vol. 337 Issue 8755 Pg. 1435-9 (Jun 15 1991) ISSN: 0140-6736 [Print] England
• PMID: 1675317 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.)

Chemical References

• DNA, Viral

Topics

• Adult
• Blood Donors (statistics & numerical data)
• DNA, Viral (analysis)
• Diagnosis, Differential
• Female
• HTLV-I Infections (diagnosis, epidemiology, immunology)
• HTLV-II Infections (diagnosis, epidemiology, immunology)
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Prevalence
• Risk Factors
• Seroepidemiologic Studies
• United States (epidemiology)