Article
HTLV-1 is predominantly sexually transmitted in Salvador, the city with the highest HTLV-1 prevalence in Brazil
Registro en:
NUNES, David et al. HTLV-1 is predominantly sexually transmitted in Salvador, the city with the highest HTLV-1 prevalence in Brazil. PLoS ONE, v. 12, n. 2, p. 1-10, 2017.
1932-6203
10.1371/journal.pone.0171303
Autor
Nunes, David
Boa-Sorte, Ney
Grassi, Maria Fernanda Rios
Taylor, Graham P
Teixeira, Maria Gloria
Barreto, Maurício Lima
Dourado, Inês
Castro Filho, Bernardo Galvão
Resumen
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and by Fundação de Amparo à pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB). Salvador is the city with the highest number of HTLV-1 infected individuals in Brazil, yet the main route of HTLV-1 transmission is unknown. Objective
To investigate the association of syphilis infection as a proxy for sexual transmission of
HTLV-1 infection in the general population of this city.
Methods
A cross sectional population-based study was conducted with 3,451 serum samples
obtained by a representative simple random sampling. Data on gender, age, income, and
years of education were collected by questionnaire and the presence of HTLV, HIV and
Treponema pallidum infection was determined by serology. Logistic regression analysis
was used to evaluate the independent effect of the potential explanatory variables to HTLV-
1 infection and Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% CI were calculated.
Results
The majority of studied individuals were female (56.4%), had less than 7 years of education
(55.3%) and earned two or less minimum wages (52.0%). The overall prevalence of HTLV-1
was 1.48% (51/3,451; 95% CI: 1.10%± 1.94%), which increased with age. Only three persons
younger than 17 (3/958; 0.31%; CI 95% 0.06±0.91) years were infected by HTLV-1.
Among the 45 syphilis positives, 12 (26.7%) were HTLV positive, while among 21 HIV positives,
only one (4.8%) was HTLV positive. HTLV-1 infection was found to be associated with
syphilis infection (ORADJUSTED 36.77; 95% CI 14.96±90.41).
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