Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type I Infection in Pregnant Women in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is a retrovirus and the transmission occurs from mother to child, by sexual contact or by blood transfusion. This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence ratio of HTLV infection in a group of 389 pregnant women attending at Fernandes Figueira Institute, Fiocruz, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The specimens were screened for HTLV antibodies by ELISA and reactive samples were submitted to a Western Blot (WB) for confirmation. Detection of HTLV-I provirus in DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and breast milk mononuclear cells (BMMC) from the seropositive women, was performed by PCR using primers for LTR, tax, pol regions. Of the 389 pregnant women tested, four (1%) were HTLV-I seropositive and three were indeterminate in the WB. PCR was done in three of the seropositive cases and HTLV-I provirus was detected in PBMC and BMMC from two of them. Three blood samples (0.8%) that presented WB indeterminate patterns, were negative by PCR. Our data indicate that the frequency of HTLV-I infection among pregnant women is relatively high in Rio de Janeiro and that preventive measures against the vertical transmission of the virus must be adopted in Brazil. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.17525/vrrjournal.v15i1.35