Seropositivity for Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) in Donors at the Eye Bank of I.R. Iran

To determine the prevalence of Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) in corneal donors at the Eye Bank of I.R. Iran from 2005 to 2007. Serologic tests for HTLV-1,2 were performed in all donors at the Eye Bank from August 2005 to July 2007. Hospital and medicolegal reports of HTLV-reactive cases as well as their geographic origin were reviewed. Overall, 5533 donors including 4467 (80.7%) male subjects aged from 2 to 84 years were evaluated. Thirty seven (0.67%) cases with mean age of 45.8±17 (range 7-84) years were seropositive for HTLV-1,2 of whom 26 (70.3%) were male. The most common causes of death in HTLV-reactive cases were car accidents (37.8%) followed by cardiovascular diseases (24.3%), falls (10.8%) and drug intoxication (10.8%). No evidence of neurologic or hematologic disorders was found on reviewing the hospital and medicolegal reports of HTLV-reactive cases. This is the first report on HTLV-reactivity in corneal donors in Iran revealing a prevalence of 1 per 150 cases.