Serologic Prevalence of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) among major Thalassemic Patients in Kermanshah 2010

Transfusion-transmitted infections (TTI) continue to be a major challenge for Blood transfusion organizations in the world and multi- transfused patients (MTPs) are at higher risk of infection. HTLV-1 is a retrovirus that easily transmitted via blood cell products. The aim of this study is determine the seroprevalence of HTLV-1 in major thalassemic patients from Kermanshah Province, western of Iran. A total of 116 serum samples from all major thalassemic patients that exist in Kermanshah providence and 1000 serum samples from healthy individuals as control group were tested for HTLV specific antibody by ELISA method. All of the ELISA positive samples were confirmed by Western Blotting analysis. From major thalassemic patients, 4 subjects (3.4%) had HTLV-I infection. Also, among 1000 control individuals, 5 subjects (0.5%) had HTLV-I infection. There wasn’t any HTLV-II in major thalassemic patients or control individuals. our results showed this infection exist in our region. These results indicated that screening procedure were not doing carefully. More studies are needed to clarify the reason of this unsuccessfully screening of this virus from donated blood.