RT Journal Article
T1 HTLV infection in persons with sexually transmitted diseases in Spain
A1 Ayerdi, Oskar
A1 Benito, Rafael
A1 Ortega, Diego
A1 Aguilera Guirao, Antonio
A1 Montiel, Natalia
A1 Pintos, Ilduara
A1 Díaz de Santiago, Alberto
A1 Baza, Begoña
A1 Soriano, Vicente
A1 Mendoza, Carmen de
A1 Spanish HTLV Network, 
K1 HTLV-1
K1 Sexually transmitted infections
K1 Syphilis
K1 HIV
K1 Transmission
AB Background: HTLV-1 infection is a neglected disease, despite estimates of 10 million people infected worldwide and producing life-threatening illnesses in 10% of carriers. Sexual transmission is the main route of contagion. However, HTLV-1 is not listed among sexually transmitted infections (STIs).Methods: Serum from all consecutive individuals who had attended six STI clinics across Spain during the last 12 months were tested for HTLV antibodies using a commercial enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Reactive samples were confirmed by immunoblot.Results: A total of 2,524 samples were examined. The majority (1,936; 76.7%) belonged to men, of whom 676 (34.9%) were men who have sex with men (MSM) receiving HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis. Although native Spaniards predominated (1,470; 58.2%), up to 593 (23.5%) came from Latin America and 139 (5.5%) were African. A total of 26 individuals were initially EIA reactive and immunoblot confirmed 5 as HTLV-1 and 7 as HTLV-2. All but one HTLV-1+ case came from Latin America. Three were men and two were women. Among Latin Americans, the HTLV-1 seroprevalence was 0.67%. In contrast, all seven HTLV-2+ were native Spaniards and former injection drug users, and all but one were HIV+.Conclusion: The rate of HTLV infection among individuals with STIs in Spain is 0.5%, which is greater than in the general population. These results support the introduction of universal HTLV screening in persons who attend clinics for STIs.
PB Frontiers Media
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32031
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32031
LA eng
NO Ayerdi O, Benito R, Ortega D, Aguilera A, Montiel N, Pintos I, Díaz de Santiago A, Baza B, Soriano V and de Mendoza C (2023) HTLV infection in persons with sexually transmitted diseases in Spain. Front. Immunol. 14:1277793. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1277793
NO The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was funded in part by grant UNIR-itei 005/23, Fondos Feder-Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS-PI-21/1717) and Fundación Mutua Madrileña (AP-174112020)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026