Low prevalence of human T-lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I) in HIV-positive patients in Kenya.

HTLV-I and HTLV-II are oncoviruses from the Retroviridae subfamily. Although HTLV-II is not known to be associated with any medical disorder HTLV-I has been found to be the major cause of a T-cell neoplastic proliferative disease and a neurological disorder called tropical spastic paraparesis HTLV-I associated myelopathy. The virus is transmitted through sexual intercourse and contaminated blood products and is endemic in Japan the US the Caribbean and parts of Africa. Associations have been observed between HIV and HTLV. A serological survey of stored sera from three geographic locations with the highest reported incidence of HIV and AIDS in Kenya was therefore conducted with the intent of assessing the prevalence of HTLV among patients infected with HIV. 913 samples were collected from the centers. 265 were seropositive for HIV-1 while only 4 were confirmed HTLV-1 positive under Elisa and Western blot analyses. Coinfections of HTLV and HIV have been reported in Senegal where a coinfection rate of 25.9% was observed. Associations have also been observed in Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago. The findings of this study are the first reported evidence of HTLV in humans in Kenya. The dangers of HTLV to safe blood transfusion in Kenya remain to be determined. Finally more study needs to be conducted on sentinel populations to verify the prevalence and type of this other retrovirus in the general population.