A pilot Seroepidemiologic study of HTLV in thalassemia, hemophilia, and hemodialysed patients in Hormozgan

Transmission of blood borne infections is common among the multitransfusion patients such as Thalassemia, Hemophilia and Hemodialysis patients. Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) is one of the Retroviruses which are transmitted by blood and its products. In Iran, HTLV is endemic only in Khorasan province. In order to assess the possibility of the virus transmission and its clinical impacts, in this study, we consider the seroepidemiological patterns of HTLV infections in a group pf thalassemia, Hemophilia and hemodialysis patients from Hormozgan. In this seroepidemiological study, 210 patients, including 163 thalassemias, 40 hemodialysis patients and 7 hemophilia (98 female, 112 male) with the age range of 9 to 79 years were analyzed. Their plasma was tested for detection of antibody against HTLV by ELISA method and was confirmed by Western blot and PCR methods. Anti-bodies against HTLV type 1 were detected in 3.06% of patients which was higher than its prevalence in healthy individuals. All positive cases were thalassemia patients. No positive case was among hemodialysis or hemophilia patients. HTLV type 2 was not found in this study. This study shows that multi-transfusion patients were infected probably via blood transfusion or hemodialysis and there is possibility that HTLV virus is not restricted to Khorasan Province