Frequency of Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 in Patients with Rare Bleeding Disorders

Abstract

Background and Objective: Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a virus that is endemic in some parts of the world, and as a pathogen, it can lead to severe infections in humans. Since no antiviral treatment is currently available and the only way of confrontation is prevention and identification of infected blood, this study was performed to determine the frequency of antibodies against HTLV-1 in patients with rare bleeding disorders receiving blood in Zahedan. Methods: The study population included 180 patients with rare bleeding disorders referred to Ali Asghar Hospital in Zahedan selected by census method and 90 healthy individuals who referred to hospital lab selected by convenience sampling method in 2020. Age range was 1 to 39 years. Blood samples were collected from all participants and antibody test against HTLV-1 was confirmed using ELISA kit and positive ELISA test was confirmed using Real-time PCR. Findings: In the case group, there were 86 men (47.8%) and 94 women (52.2%) and in the control group there were 43 men (47.8%) and 47 women (52.2%). Antibodies against HTLV-1 were found in 2 patients (1.1%) with rare bleeding disorders and none in healthy individuals. The first was a 29-year-old man with Glanzmann's disease who had severe Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. The second case was a 23-year-old woman with severe forms of factor V and factor VIII deficiency whose family history of Rare Bleeding Disorders (RBD) was positive. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that the risk of HTLV-1 transmission through plasma-induced blood products and new types of coagulation factors seems negligible.

Keywords

• rare bleeding disorders
• patients
• human t-cell leukemia virus type 1.