Screening for HTLV-I in healthy blood donors in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies

ABSTRACT

Of 1089 healthy blood donors screened for HTLV-I using ABBOTTS HTLV-I EIA 18 (1.7 percent) were positive; and 16 (1.5 percent) were confirmed positive using HTLV-I/11 Cambridge Biothec Western Blot method. HTLV-I antibodies were found amongst the major ethnic groups, viz. Africans, 11 cases (68.75 percent) and East Indians 4 cases (25 percent). The mean age of the donors who tested positive for HTLV-I was 30.75 years; and the male to female ratio was 4.31. (AU)