A study of adult T cell leukemia

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a retrovirus associated with adult T cel1 leukemia, HTLV-I associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) and possibly with other diseases. HTLV-I is transmitted via breast milk, sexual intercourse and through blood transmission. Seroepidemiological studies have been shown distinct geographic clusters of HTLV-I and its associated diseases in southwestern Japan, the Caribbean basin, the southeastern United States and central Africa. The prevalence and distribution of HTLV-I around the world is unknown because the laboratory procedures that have been used in most of the sera&&&& epidemiologic studies cannot distinguish between HTLV-I and-II.We have investigated the seroprevalence of HTLV-I in Mexico, Cuba, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, Brazil and Papua New Guinea for 3 years. We got some interested seropidemiological results from each countries.1) Yucatan, Mexico : a low prevalence of HTLV-I/II intection among eight population groups (14 positive cases of 2.277)2) Cuba : Very low seroprevalence of HTLV-I/II in blood donors and in hematological and nonhematological patients (one positive and 5 indeterminate cases of 2.429)3) Thailand : Very low seroprevalence of HTLV-I/II in patients with malignancies (only one case out of 882)4) Brazil : high seroprevalence of HTLV-I/II in blood donors and hematological disorders (in Recife 0.8% in donors was positive, and we diagnosed 20 cases as adult T cell leukemia in 2 hospitals in Rio de Janeiro)