Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Feb 2014)

Prevalence and genetic characterisation of HTLV-1 and 2 dual infections in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in Central-West Brazil

  • Aline Garcia Kozlowski,
  • Megmar Aparecida dos Santos Carneiro,
  • Marcia Alves Dias de Matos,
  • Sheila Araujo Teles,
  • Joao Alves Araujo Filho,
  • Koko Otsuki,
  • Ana Carolina Paulo Vicente,
  • Regina Maria Bringel Martins

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/0074-0276130230
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 109, no. 1
pp. 118 – 121

Abstract

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Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) may impact the clinical course of tuberculosis (TB). Both infections are highly endemic in Brazil. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of HTLV-1/2 in TB patients in Central-West Brazil and to perform a genetic characterisation of the respective isolates. Of the 402 patients, six (1.49%) were positive for anti-HTLV and five (1.24%; 95% confidence interval: 0.46-3.05) were infected with HTLV-1/2. Genetic characterisation demonstrated that the four HTLV-1 isolates belonged to the Transcontinental subgroup A of the Cosmopolitan subtype a and that the HTLV-2 isolate belonged to subtype a (HTLV-2a/c). The prevalence of HTLV infection observed in this study is higher than that observed in local blood donors and the HTLV-1 and 2 subtypes identified are consistent with those circulating in Brazil.

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