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. 1995 Jul;33(7):1735–1738. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.7.1735-1738.1995

Prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 infection among Spanish drug users measured by HTLV-1 assay and HTLV-1 and -2 assay. HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 Spanish Study Group.

D R Henrard 1, V Soriano 1, E Robertson 1, M Gutierrez 1, J Stephens 1, F Dronda 1, F Miles 1, E Pujol 1, M Buytendorp 1, A Castro 1
PMCID: PMC228259  PMID: 7665638

Abstract

The prevalence of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 infection in 1992 and 1993 was determined by testing 2,152 specimens from injection drug users living in 11 geographic areas in Spain. Results obtained by an authentic HTLV-1 and -2 test were compared with those obtained by an HTLV-1 assay. HTLV infection was identified in 7 of 11 regions, with an overall prevalence of 2.5% (range, 0.4 to 11.5%). Fourty-four (81%) of 54 subjects were infected with HTLV-2; the viral strains in the remaining 10 subjects could not be serologically typed. Underestimation of HTLV infection because of the low sensitivities of HTLV-1 enzyme immunoassays for HTLV-2 antibody was relatively low (< 20%). Therefore, previous epidemiologic findings generated with HTLV-1 enzyme immunoassays appear to be reasonably accurate. Our results suggest that the rate of HTLV infection may have been increasing recently among Spanish drug users.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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