RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Prevalence of HTLV infection in pregnant women in Spain
A1 Machuca, Ana
A1 Tuset, Concepción
A1 Soriano, Vincent
A1 Caballero, Estrella
A1 Aguilera, Antonio
A1 Ortiz de Lejarazu Leonardo, Raúl
K1 HTLV
K1 Leucemia
K1 Mujeres embarazadas
K1 32 Ciencias Médicas
AB Objective: To estimate the prevalence of HTLV infection among pregnant women in Spain.Methods: A commercial ELISA incorporating HTLV-I and HTLV-II antigens was used for HTLV antibody screening. Repeatedly reactive samples were further examined by western blot. Moreover, confirmation with PCR was performed when cells were available.Results: 20 366 pregnant women in 12 different Spanish cities were tested in a 3 year period (July 1996 to August 1999). 32 samples were repeatedly reactive by ELISA, and 10 of them were confirmed as positive by western blot (eight for HTLV-II and two for HTLV-I). In addition, three of 13 women who had an indeterminate western blot pattern yielded positive results for HTLV-II by PCR. All 11 HTLV-II infected women had been born in Spain, and all but one were former drug users. Seven of them were coinfected with HIV-1. One HTLV-I infected woman was from Peru, where HTLV is endemic and where she most probably was infected during sexual intercourse.Conclusion: The overall prevalence of HTLV infection among pregnant women in Spain is 0.064% (13/20 366), and HTLV-II instead of HTLV-I is the most commonly found variant. A strong relation was found among HTLV-II infection and specific epidemiological features, such as Spanish nationality and injecting drug use. Although HTLV-II can be vertically transmitted, mainly through breast feeding, both the low prevalence of infection and its lack of pathogenicity would not support the introduction of HTLV antenatal screening in Spain
PB BMJ Publishing Group
SN 1368-4973
YR 2000
FD 2000
LK http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/45700
UL http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/45700
LA eng
NO Sexually Transmitted Infections,2000, vol. 76 n. 5, p. 366-370
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 22-nov-2024