Rev Clin Esp. 1994 Feb;194(2):104-6. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE
The epidemiology of retrovirus HTLV-II is scarcely known even though it
appears to be narrowly related to parenteral drug addiction. In order to
find out the prevalence of HTLV-II among IVDU in our area, the sera of
137 subjects who came to our center for clinical evaluation were
analyzed. The presence of HTLV-I/II antibodies were determined via ELISA
and the sera that were repeatedly reactive were confirmed by the Western
blot technique which reveals infection by both retroviruses. Two sera
were repeatedly positive by ELISA (1.45 percent). Western blot confirmed
HTLV-II positivity in both sera. Serology for HIV-1 was positive in 52
sera (37.9%). The two HTLV-II positive sera were also positive for
HIV-1. These results indicate that HTLV-II infection is already present
in the IVDU population in our area, where, similar to what happens in
the U.S. and Europe, this retrovirus is implicated in the majority of
HTLV infections in IVDU.
English Abstract Human HTLV-II Antibodies/BLOOD HTLV-II
Infections/BLOOD/COMPLICATIONS/*EPIDEMIOLOGY Seroepidemiologic Methods
Spain/EPIDEMIOLOGY Substance Abuse, Intravenous/*COMPLICATIONS JOURNAL
ARTICLE