HTLV Testing in Primary Care

This could be offered to a patient:

 

1. With a perceived risk of exposure/patient request

2. With a known risk of exposure (contact)

3. From a high risk ethnicity group (see below)

4. With HIV Infection

5. In pregnancy

6. If they had symptoms of myelopathy

7. If they had a T-cell malignancy

 

Patient Information

Patient Information Leaflets are available here.

 

Sample collection

Please collect blood for serology, requesting ‘HTLV 1 and 2 Antibody Screen ’.

 

Reactive Screening Test

Refer to the National Centre for Human Retrovirology (NCHR) in the Clinical Trials Unit.

 

 

Countries with high prevalence HTLV infection

An area of ‘high prevalence’ is defined as a prevalence over 1% in the general population or prevalence of over 1/10 000 among first-time blood donors.1   These countries are listed below.  In many parts of the world, there is inaccurate data on prevalence, so this list is likely to be incomplete.

 

Europe

Romania

 

Caribbean Islands

Africa

South America

 

Asia

Iran

Japan

Taiwan

 

North America

Louisiana

Missisippi

Nevada

North Dakota

Texas

Wyoming

 

Indigenous Populations of USA/Australia

 

1European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Geographical distribution of areas with a high prevalence of HTLV-1 infection. Stockholm: ECDC; 2015

 

The National Centre for Human Retrovirology Clinic  Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Ground Floor, Winston Churchill Wing, St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street, London W2 1NY