Prevalence of Antibodies to Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Types I and II among Saudi Arabian Blood Donors

Testing for HTLV 1 and HTLV 2 among blood donors in Western Saudi Arabia: prevalence and cost considerations

“…The low prevalence among donors in Saudi Arabia has been shown repeatedly in many studies. Table summarises the studies conducted in Saudi Arabia since 1991 (Bernvil et al ., ; Arif & Ramia, ; Fathalla et al ., ; Al Jaouni, ; Taha et al ., ; Balkhy et al ., ; El‐Hazmi, ; Ul‐Hassan et al ., ; Fawaz et al ., ; Ghazi, ; Alshehri, ). Interestingly, significant numbers of donors positive for HTLV 1 and HTLV 2 by confirmatory testing are limited to reports from the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia (Fathalla et al ., ; Taha et al ., ; Ul‐Hassan et al ., ; Fawaz et al ., ).…”