Prevalence of HTLV-1/2 and HIV-1/2 in individuals attending Public Health Center in Mozambique. One HTLV-1 symptomatic case report

Abstract

An overall HTLV-1/2 prevalence of 2.3% was observed, and increased with age. Regional variation in the prevalence of HIV and HTLV-1/2 was observed; 32.2%, 65.5% and 44% of individuals tested HIV-positive in Northern, Central and Southern MZ, respectively, and 2.4%, 3.9% and 0.9% tested HTLV-1-positive in the same regions. No association between HTLV-1 infection and sociodemographic variables or HIV status was detected. One woman aged 54 years, born in Northern MZ, HIV-negative, who complaints of rheumatic pain, presented high HTLV-1 proviral load, and phylogenetic analysis of env and LTR sequences clustered HTLV-1-isolate into Cosmopolitan subtype, transcontinental subgroup A (GenBank Accession numbers HM770441 and JF271853). Discussion and conclusions These data suggest different risk factors and epidemiologic correlates of HIV and HTLV-1 transmission in MZ. HTLV-1 is endemic in this country, and arthritis was associated with HTLV-1 infection in one patient.