title: Comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent and indirect immunofluorescence assays for the detection of human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I antibodies in sera from rural Haiti.
abstract: Serum samples were obtained from 340 healthy individuals without evidence of neurologic disease living in rural Haiti. Sera were screened for antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) using two commercially available enzyme immunoassays (EIA) and by an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using a mixture of uninfected H9 cells and HTLV-I-infected MT-2 cells. Repeatedly positive samples were confirmed by Western blot (WB). Results with the two EIA systems were concordant and detected 13 positive samples, each of which was confirmed by WB. Only 9 (69%) of 13 WB-positive sera were detected by IFA, and four additional samples, positive by IFA, could not be confirmed by WB. The prevalence of HTLV-I seropositivity in this selected rural Haitian population was 3.8% (13 of 340).
authors.affiliation: Virology Reference Laboratory, VA Medical Center, West Haven, CT 06516.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Bia
authors.forename: T M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Chacko
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jean-Baptiste
authors.forename: B P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Griffith
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015153:Blotting, Western; D003429:Cross Reactions; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006205:Haiti / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population
chemical_list: D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies