Prevalence of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-I) in general inhabitants in non-adult T-cell leukemia (ATL)-endemic Hokkaido, Japan.
In contrast to adult T-cell leukemia (ATL)-endemic southwestern Japan, the northernmost island Hokkaido has a small number of ATL patients annually. In this study, we surveyed 32,587 healthy inhabitants throughout Hokkaido for antibodies to human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-I). Only 244 individuals (0.8%) were seropositive as HTLV-I carriers; 0.6% (123 of 19,512) in males and 0.9% (121 of 13,075) in females. In some areas, however, the inhabitants had relatively high seropositivity (> 2%). The highest rate was 5.2% with a cluster of ATL patients in a certain town of the Hidaka area near the Pacific Ocean, in southeast Hokkaido.
Kwon
K W
KW
Department of Research, Hokkaido Red Cross Blood Center, Sapporo, Japan.
Yano
M
M
Sekiguchi
S
S
Iwanaga
M
M
Fujiwara
S
S
Oikawa
O
O
Sugiura
M
M
Imai
S
S
Osato
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002460:Cell Line; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies / Q000032:analysis; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D015458:Leukemia, T-Cell / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors
D015481:HTLV-I Antibodies