Comparing the Prevalence of HTLV-1 and Its Risk Factors in Prisoners with Intravenous and Non-Intravenous Drug Use in Birjand

Regarding the high prevalence of the risk factors for human T-cell leukemia Virus (HTLV) in prison, including the high intravenous drug use and the higher chance of unprotected sexual behaviors, homosexuality, tattoos, and the probability of association between this disease and other sexually transmitted infections such as HTLV, this study compares the prevalence of HTLV-1 and its risk factors in intravenous and non-intravenous drug user prisoners in Birjand. This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in Birjand Prison during 2014-2015. The research community included all the prisoners of Birjand. Census method was used across intravenous drug users and simple random sampling for non-intravenous drug users’ group where sample size was considered to be 300 individuals (69 individuals in the case group and 231 individuals in the control group). Collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests in SPSS software v.21 at siginificance level of 5%. According to the results of the study, there was no case of HTLV-1 in either of the two groups. However, prevalence of smoking and history of common injection, non-sterile injections, suspected sexual contact, alcohol consumption, and tattoo in intravenous drug users were significantly higher than in non-intravenous drug users (P < 0.05). The results of this study suggested that although the prevalence of this disease was zero in the studied community, the prevalence of its risk factors was significant. This requires planning to reduce the risk factors associated with this disease in the target community.