Seroepidemiology of HTLV-1 Infection in Northeast Thailand : A Four Year Surveillance
YUPA URWIJITAROON, M.Sc.*,**, CHINTANA PUAPAIROJ, M.D.*, SAHA W AT BARUSRUX, M.Sc. *, **, AMORNRAT ROMPHRUK, M.Sc.*, PRA WEE KHAMPEERA, Cert*.
Affiliation : * Blood Transfusion Centre, Faculty of Medicine, ** Department of Clinical Immunology, Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
Abstract The human T-lymphotropic virus type I (H1LV-I) can be transmitted through blood trans- fusion, sexual contact, perinataly and by breast feeding. We carried out a four years seroepide- miology surveillance study of H1L V-I infection among northeast Thai population by screening for antibodies to H1LV-I (anti-H1LV-I) in 1992, 1993, 1995 and 1997. A total of 8,323 blood samples were collected from 6,228 blood donors, 823 pregnancies, 219 multitransfused patients, 53 HIV positive intravenous drug users and 1,000 northeast-Thai workers at different periods of time. The serum samples were tested for anti-HTL V-I by particle agglutination (P A) technique and con- firmed by Western blot. One sample from a multitransfused patient collected in 1992 and one sample from a blood donor collected in 1995 demonstrated positive anti-H1L V-I screening by PA but negative by Western blot. This finding indicates that at present H1L V-I is not a public health problem in the northeast of Thailand but surveillance should be continually conducted.
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