Human T-cell lymphotropic virus antibody prevalence in HIV-1-infected individuals attending a sexual health clinic in South-East London.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) are both retroviruses with similar routes of transmission. A number of reports suggest variable clinical outcomes in HIV and HTLV co-infected individuals. There is no published information regarding the prevalence of HIV and HTLV co-infection in the UK. We therefore carried out an unlinked anonymised retrospective study to investigate the prevalence of HTLV co-infection in HIV infected patients attending a sexual health clinic in South-East London. We identified sera from 777 HIV-1 positive adults (504 male, 273 female) who had attended our sexual health clinic between January 2000 and March 2001. Serum samples stored at -20 degrees C were initially tested by HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 antibody enzyme-linked immunoassay (EIA). An immunoblot assay was carried out on reactive samples to discriminate between viral subtypes. Samples with indeterminate results were also analyzed by Western blot. The prevalence of HTLV antibody was 0.8% (five patients with HTLV-1 and one with HTLV-2). Four of the HTLV-1 co-infected patients were females born abroad, of Black African or Caribbean origin. The other HTLV-1-infected patient was a male in the Black Other ethnic group born in the UK, demonstrating that transmission may occur outside recognized areas of high endemicity. The HTLV-2 co-infected individual was a White male born in Italy, and was likely to have been infected through intravenous drug use. The results suggest HTLV antibody screening should be considered in the local HIV infected population of south London.