Screening for Anti‐Human T‐Lymphotropic Virus Antibody in Blood Donors and Polytransfused Patients in Apulia (Italy)

Abstract

A stringent procedure for the diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) infection was applied to 1,732 volunteer blood donors, 401 patients with various hematological disorders and 78 individuals at high risk for HIV infection. It consisted of a viral lysate-based screening assay (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill., USA), and two confirmatory assays (Western blot and radioimmunoprecipitation assay). A confirmed positive sample had to react with at least two different HTLV gene products. Evidence of HTLV infection was not found in either blood donors or patients with hematological disorders. In fact, HTLV infection was only observed in 10 intravenous drug abusers or their sexual partners. Contrary to previous reports that claimed HTLV seroprevalences of between 0.3 and 8% in blood donors from Apulia (Italy), our data suggest that infection with this virus is principally restricted to intravenous drug abusers.

Human T‐lymphotropic virus and transfusion safety: does one size fit all?

“…They range from 0% to 3.6% in Africa and from 0% to 1.5% in the Americas (with a peak of 2% in some Caribbean islands) . In Australia, the prevalence ranges from 0.001% to 0.3% and in Asia from 0% to 1.9%, while in Europe it ranges from 0% to 2.12% . This last figure, reported in the Netherlands in 1993, decreased to 0.41% in the period 2001 to 2010; moreover, in 1994, Zaaijer and coworkers showed a reduction of the seroprevalence rate from 0.13% to 0.002% after WB confirmatory testing.…”