Birjand Infectious Disease Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
Blood Borne Infections Research Center, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Razavi Khorasan Branch, Mashhad, Iran.
Arch Iran Med. 2020 Oct 1;23(10):672-677. doi: 10.34172/aim.2020.85.
Blood-borne viruses (BBVs) are one of the most important public health concerns. South Khorasan has a long border with Afghanistan and concern has risen there about blood-borne oncogenic viral infections. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence and associated risk factors of human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) and co-infections of BBVs in Birjand, Iran's eastern border.
In this cross-sectional study, 3441 subjects were tested for sero-prevalence of HTLV-1 by ELISA. The data on demographic features, HTLV-1-related risk factors and other characteristics of the population were analyzed by Pearson chi-square and logistic regression tests. Finally, the co-infection of BBVs was evaluated in the study.
The prevalence of HTLV-1 was 0.3% (95% CI: 0.12-0.48). Notably, the sero-prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis D virus (HDV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in our previous studies was reported at 0%, 0.2%, 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively. The results indicated that the occurrence of HTLV-1 infection was associated only with the history of hospitalization (odds ratio [OR]: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.07-0.97, with P = 0.04). The co-infection of HBV with HCV was the most common (2.35%), while a co-infection rate of 1.17% was found for both HBV/HTLV-1 and HBV/HDV.
Although a higher prevalence of the viruses was expected, it was close to the overall Iranian population. With respect to close relationship with an HTLV-1 endemic area (Mashhad and Neyshabour), the prevalence is very low; however, more attention is needed. Our findings reinforce the importance of increasing knowledge about BBV-related health risk behaviors to prevent the emergence of new cases, especially in low-risk populations.
血源病毒（BBVs）是最重要的公共卫生关注点之一。南呼罗珊与阿富汗接壤，那里对血源性致癌病毒感染的担忧有所增加。本研究的目的是评估伊朗东部边境比尔詹德地区人类 T 淋巴细胞白血病病毒 1（HTLV-1）的流行率和相关的血源性病毒共感染以及相关的危险因素。
在这项横断面研究中，通过 ELISA 检测了 3441 名受试者的 HTLV-1 血清阳性率。通过 Pearson 卡方检验和逻辑回归检验分析了人口统计学特征、HTLV-1 相关危险因素和其他人口特征的数据。最后，评估了本研究中的 BBVs 共感染情况。
HTLV-1 的流行率为 0.3%（95%CI：0.12-0.48）。值得注意的是，我们之前的研究报告 HIV、乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）、丁型肝炎病毒（HDV）和丙型肝炎病毒（HCV）的血清阳性率分别为 0%、0.2%、1.2%和 1.6%。结果表明，HTLV-1 感染的发生仅与住院史有关（比值比 [OR]：0.27，95%CI：0.07-0.97，P=0.04）。HBV 与 HCV 的共感染最为常见（2.35%），而 HBV/HTLV-1 和 HBV/HDV 的共感染率分别为 1.17%。
尽管预计病毒的流行率会更高，但与伊朗总体人口接近。由于与 HTLV-1 流行地区（马什哈德和内沙布尔）关系密切，流行率非常低；然而，需要更加关注。我们的研究结果强调了提高有关 BBV 相关健康风险行为的知识的重要性，以预防新病例的出现，尤其是在低风险人群中。
