Current Prevalence and Risk Factors Associated with Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 and Human T Lymphotropic Virus Type 2 Infections Among HIV/AIDS Patients in São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT

During the 1990s, high prevalences of HIV/human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HIV/human T lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) coinfections were detected in São Paulo, Brazil in association with intravenous drug use (IDU). The current prevalences and risk factors for HIV/HTLV-1/-2 were evaluated in 1,608 patients attending the AIDS/STD Reference and Training Center in São Paulo. Blood samples were analyzed for HTLV-1/2-specific antibodies using enzyme immunoassays (EIA Murex HTLV-I+II, Diasorin, and Gold ELISA HTLV-I+II, REM) and immunoblotting (HTLV Blot 2.4, MP Biomedicals and INNO-LIA HTLV-I/II, Innogenetics) and for the pol proviral DNA segments of HTLV-1 and HTLV-2 by “in-house” real-time PCR. These analyses revealed that 50 (3.11%) of the samples were HTLV positive, including 25 (1.55%) that were HTLV-1 positive, 21 (1.31%) that were HTLV-2 positive, and 4 (0.25%) that were HTLV positive (untypeable). The median age of the HIV/HTLV-coinfected individuals was 50 years versus 44 years in the overall population (p=0.000). The risk factors associated with HIV/HTLV-1/-2 coinfections were female gender (OR 3.26, 1.78–5.95), black/pardo color (OR 2.21, 1.21–4.03), infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) (OR 4.27, 2.32–7.87) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) (OR 24.40, 12.51–48.11), and intravenous drug use (IDU) (OR 30.01, 15.21–59.29). The current low prevalence of HTLV-1/2 in HIV-infected patients in São Paulo could be explained in part by programs providing IDUs with sterile needles and syringes and changes in the drug usage patterns of individuals from injecting cocaine to smoking crack cocaine.