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A Sero‐Epidemiological Study on Mother‐to‐Child Transmission of HTLV‐I in Southern Kyushu, Japan *
Author(s) -
Oki Toshitaka,
Yoshinaga Mitsuhiro,
Otsuka Hirofumi,
Miyata Koichiro,
Sonoda Shunrdu,
Nagata Yukihiro
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
asia‐oceania journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1447-0756
pISSN - 0389-2328
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0756.1992.tb00333.x
Subject(s) - seroconversion , medicine , prospective cohort study , epidemiology , breast feeding , retrospective cohort study , transmission (telecommunications) , risk factor , pediatrics , obstetrics , virology , virus , electrical engineering , engineering
In vertical transmission of HTLV‐I the duration of breast‐feeding seems to be an important risk factor. In this study, we made prospective and retrospective surveys on the rate of vertical transmission of HTLV‐I in infants and their siblings born to HTLV‐I seropositive mothers. The results obtained were as follows.1 In the prospective study, 885 of the 16,283 pregnant women examined were HTLV‐I seropositive, and the seropositive rate was 5.4%. The seroconversion rates of short‐term (>7 months) and long‐term (≥7 months) breast‐feeders were 3.8% (1/ 26 cases) and 25.0% (1/4 cases) respectively, and the rate of bottle‐feeders was 5.6% (10/177 cases). Short‐term breast‐feeding tended to yield a lower seroconversion rate of infants. In addition, the seroconversion rate of short‐term breast‐feeders was nearly equal to that of bottle‐feeders: 3.8% vs. 5.6%. 2 In the retrospective study, the seroconversion rates of short‐term and long‐term breast‐feeders in their siblings were 4.5% (3/67 cases) and 14.0% (19/136 cases) respectively. There was a significant difference between the 2 groups (P<0.01).Thus, the results of our retrospective and prospective studies suggest that short‐term breast‐feeding might lessen the risk of breast‐milk‐borne transmission of HTLV‐I from carrier mothers to their children.