Crovari P, Gabutti G, Gallo M, Guida B, Lazzereschi M, Piersantelli N, Rizzo F, Santolini MB, Wicks R; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1992 Jul 19-24; 8: C359 (abstract no. PoC 4701).
Institute of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Genoa University, Italy.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate HTL VI/II spreading among subjects at risk of HIV infection. METHODS: Since July 1991 we examined italian subjects coming from the Infectious Departments of S. Martino and Galliera Hospitals in Genoa and from Genoa and Ponte X prisons. All patients were tested for anti-HIV and other markers connected with this infection. Besides standard screening for HIV infection (ELISA and W.B.), Retrotek HTLV I ELISA (CPI) and Serodia HTLV I (Fujrebio) were utilized. All samples reactive in at least one of the tests mentioned above were then analyzed by W.B. (HTLV I/II Biotech Res. Lab.) which uses strips containing native HTLV I viral polypeptides in combination with a purified recombinant transmembrane envelope protein (p21envr) The interpretation of this W.B. results were performed according to the criteria suggested by Wiktor et Al. (1990). RESULTS: On the whole 1001 anti-HIV positive subjects were detected. Among them 23 were reactive in at least one of the HTLV I/II screening tests, 9 were confirmed as positive and 4 were classified as indeterminate. Among the 779 anti-HIV 1 negative sera, 13 reacted in the screening tests but were not confirmed in the supplementary test. The W.B. reactivity pattern of all the positive samples was typical of HTLV II infection since the intensity of the p24 band was greater than the p 19 band or the p19 band was absent. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that HTLV VI/II spread among anti-HIV 1 positive subjects. In particular, the W.B. reactivity suggests HTL VII infection. Considering that the diagnosis requires extremely sensitive methods, these results will be confirmed by PCR. The prevalence that has been observed in anti-HIV positive subjects (0.9%) is probably underestimated; nevertheless it can be compared with the one detected in previous studies carried out among ligurian IVDUs from 1981 to 1988 (total prevalence 0.9%).
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- HTLV-I Infections
- HTLV-II Infections
- Human T-lymphotropic virus 1
- Humans
- Prevalence
Other ID:
UI: 102200079
From Meeting Abstracts