Unpredicted HTLV-1 infection in female sex worker from Imbituba, Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

Dear Sir, Recently, some of us presented data concerning HIV frequency in female sex workers (FSW) from the port city of Imbituba, Santa Catarina (SC), Southern Brazil 10 . Out of 90 FSW, six (6.7%) were found to be HIV-positive, and significant association were found between HIV infection and the number of clients attended per day (p = 0.008), and sexual relations without frequent use of condoms (p = 0.015). Now, in order to add some information concerning to other human retroviruses (human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 -HTLV-1, and human T-lymphotropic virus type 2 -HTLV-2) which share the same routes of virus transmission/acquisitions (i.e., mother-to-child transmission, sexual contact, blood transfusion, contaminated needles sharing among injecting drug users -IDU), we conducted the present study. Using enzyme immunoassays (EIA) screening tests ((Vironostika™ HTLV-I/II, BioMeriéux, Bostel, The Netherlands, and Murex™ HTLV-I+II, Abbott, Dartford Kent England, UK), and Western Blotting (WB) confirmatory test (HTLV BLOT 2.4™, Abbott Murex, Singapore System, Abbott, Delkenhein, Germany), we were able to detect one case of HTLV-1 infection. The socio-demographic as well the comportamental characteristics of the HTLV-1-infected FSW are as follow: female of 25 years of age, white color, birth place in Imbituba, four-year old son who was breastfed, incomplete elementary school, no steady partner, one month in prostitution, one client per day, vaginal and oral sexual practices, no sex during menses, no use of condoms, use of alcohol, sex with IDU, and no blood transfusion. All these data were obtained after she signed the informed consent, and based on the interview and the answers of a questionnaire. Subsequently, when she returned to receive the HIV and HTLV serological results, another blood sample was collected and confirmed HTLV-1 infection. At this time, she was attended by physicians and no HTLV-1-associated disease was detected. On the other hand, she was pregnant, and she was advised not to breastfeed her offspring. Since then, she has been visited by the non-governmental organization called Industry of Solidarity (ISO) working group, and medical care has been conducted in an outpatient site in Tubarão, SC, Brazil.As previously described, HTLV-1 is associated with several diseases such as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), HTLV-1-associated myelopathy (HAM) also known as tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), infective dermatitis in children, and uveitis 9

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 infection among Japanese immigrants and their descendants living in Southeast Brazil: A call for preventive and control responses

“…There are approximately 1.5 million people of Japanese descent in Brazil and most of them living in São Paulo state [17]. The prevalence of 5.1% (95% CI: 4.2-6.0) of HTLV-1 infection found in this study is higher than those observed in other studies conducted in different regions of the country considering HTLV-1 endemic a ´reas, including Salvador, the city with the highest HTLV-1 prevalence (1.48%) in Brazil [28][29][30][31], and higher than those conducted among specific risk groups, such as men who have sex with men, people who used illicit drugs, HIV-infected persons, and commercial sex workers, with prevalence rates varying from 0.7% to 3.0% [32][33][34][35]. This high rate (5.1%) found in the present study is similar to that observed in previous study involving Japanese community of Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul State (6.8%) [13] probably because the majority of subjects in both studies was descendant of Okinawans as well as of people from other HTLV-1-endemic regions in Japan.…”

The first survey of human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV) in HIV/AIDS patients in Santa Catarina State, Brazil

“…It was conducted by our group, analyzing 90 female sex workers from the same geographical region of this study. One HTLV-1-positive pregnant woman was detected, and she was advised not to breastfeed her offspring 16 .…”

Work-Related Human T-lymphotropic Virus 1 and 2 (HTLV-1/2) Infection: A Systematic Review

“…A case-report of HTLV-1 infection was described by Caterino-De-Araujo et al [ 49 ] in a 25 year-old female SW from Imbituba (Santa Catarina, Brazil), with no HTLV-1-associated disease, no steady partner, one month working as a prostitute with one client per day, vaginal and oral sexual practices, no use of condoms, no blood transfusion. The case-report suggested that sex work must have been the major route of virus acquisition.…”