Premium
HTLV‐I in Australia and Oceania: long term resident or recent immigrant?
Author(s) -
Doherty Richard R
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1996.tb101354.x
Subject(s) - immigration , disease , geography , virology , ethnology , demography , biology , history , medicine , sociology , archaeology , pathology
Human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV‐I) has a worldwide distribution; infection rates of up to 14% have been found in Aboriginal communities, but there is little evidence of typical HTLV‐l‐associated disease. The strains among Australian Aboriginals and Melanesians are more closely related to each other at the molecular level than to strains from Africa, Japan and the Caribbean basin. The clinical significance of these Oceanic strains of HTLV‐I in endemically infected communities is unclear.