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Prevalence of human T‐Cell lymphotropie virus infections in Germany
Author(s) -
Schätzl Hermann,
Schwarzfischer Gerhard,
Rose Dietlinde,
Gathof Birgit,
Weise Wilhelm,
Deinhardt Friedrich,
Von Der Helm Klaus
Publication year - 1994
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.1890430211
Subject(s) - indeterminate , virology , polymerase chain reaction , human t lymphotropic virus , virus , medicine , population , human t lymphotropic virus 1 , biology , genetics , gene , myelopathy , mathematics , environmental health , psychiatry , pure mathematics , spinal cord , t cell leukemia
The extent of human T‐cell lymphotropic retorvirus HTLV‐I and HTLV‐II infections in the general population in central Europe has not been investigated fully. Two hundred forty‐eight thousand blood donors from southern Germany were examined serologically for antibodies to the human lymphotropic retroviruses HTLV‐I and HTLV‐II: 0.021% were confirmed postive and 0.056% were “indeterminate”. A limited number of seropositives and “indeterminate” samples were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR): the seropositives were confirmed as positive and 43% of the “indeterminate” samples were PCR‐positive. The range of 0.021% HTLV‐positives in 248,000 donors, i.e. about two in 10,000 individuals, mirrors closely the published data for the United States. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.