Detection of HTLV-I and HTLV-II infection in Africans using type-specific envelope peptides

✍ Scribed by Dr. P. Goubau; J. Desmyter; P. Swanson; M. Reynders; J. Shih; I. Surmont; K. Kazadi; H. Lee

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 525 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.1890390107

✦ Synopsis

Antibodies to HTLV were determined i n 4,630 black African individuals from Zaire, Ghana and South Africa; 185 (4%) were confirmed as seropositive. Seroprevalance was 0.2% in a group of South African women, 0.9% among Ghanaian refugees in Belgium and from less than 1% to over 15% in various sites and populations in Zaire. With the use of HTLV-I and HTLV-II typespecific envelope peptides, 93% of confirmed HTLV seropositives were classified as HTLV-I. Five persons from the Haut Zaire region had HTLV-II serological reactivities, suggesting the presence of HTLV-II or a related retrovirus in central Africa. A cluster of HTLV-I-like indeterminate western blot patterns lacking anti-p24 antibody was found in Bas Zaire.