Survey of the seroprovalence of HTLV I/II in hemodialysis patients and blood donors in Urmia.

Human T lymphocytotropic virus HTLV is a virus from retroviridae family, and more than 20 million people are infected with this virus worldwide. It can cause leukemia/lymphoma in adults, tropical spastic paralysis, HTLV associated myelopathy, spastic paraparesis, tropical myelopathy (HAM/TSP), and some other nervous system diseases. It is transmitted by means of blood products via blood transfusion. In Iran, except the Great Khorasan region, none of blood products undergo screening for HTLV. Immunodeficiency in HD patients, results in increased risk of infection. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of anti-HTLV-I/II antibody among hemo-dialysis patients and healthy blood donors in Urmia, Iran. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2005 to January 2006 among healthy blood donors and in 2006 among hemodialysis patients. The serum of 2046 blood donors and 95 Hemodialysis patients was checked with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for anti HTLV-I/II, and positive cases were confirmed by western blot. Three seropositive cases among 95 hemodialysis patients were detected, and only one of them was confirmed by western blot. Of the healthy blood donors 1910 (93.4%) were males and 136 (6.6%) were females. Serum of 1997 (97.6%) subjects was negative, and 49 (2.6%) cases were positive for HTLV by ELISA. Among the positive cases western blot confirmed only 7 (14.3%) persons as HTLV positive, 37 (75.5%) as negative, and 5 (10.2%) as indeterminate. Among the 7 positive cases 6 (85.6%) were infected with HTLV-I, and only one (14.3%) with HTLV-I /II infection. Total Serologic prevalence of HTLV in healthy blood donors was 0.34%. We conclude that such high serologic prevalence in the population of blood donors in Urmia city, suggests the high probability of transmission through blood transfusion, and therefore screening of blood donors for human T-lymphocyte virus is essential in this region. HD patients should be screened for HTLV and positive subjects should be isolated.