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Low prevalence of human T‐cell leukemia virus‐I and ‐II infection among drug users in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Author(s) -
Van Den Hoek J. A. R.,
Al E. J. M.,
Huisman J. G.,
Goudsmit J.,
Coutinho R. A.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.1890340206
Subject(s) - virology , intravenous drug , transmission (telecommunications) , antibody , polymerase chain reaction , virus , leukemia , medicine , drug , viral disease , immunology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , cohort , biology , pharmacology , biochemistry , electrical engineering , gene , engineering
Abstract The prevalence of human T‐cell leukemia virus‐I and ‐II infection was studied in a cohort of 346 intravenous and nonintravenous drug users in Amsterdam. Three participants (0.86%) had antibodies to HTLV‐I by two commercially available HTLV‐I enzyme immunoassays (EIA). Infection in these three subjects was confirmed by radioimmunoprecipitation assay. In the immunoblot study, only two of the three subjects were considered positive, since the serum of the third subject had antibodies to p24 only. By means of the polymerase chain reaction two participants (male intravenous drug users infected with human immunodeficiency virus; HIV) appeared to be infected with HTLV‐I and one subject (a male nonintravenous drug user from Surinam) with HTLV‐II. It is concluded that HTLV‐I and HTLV‐II circulate sporadically among drug users in Amsterdam and that risky injecting behaviour, which led to an HIV epidemic among intravenous drug users, has not led so far to an appreciable transmission of the other retroviruses among this group.