Ayerdi, OskarBenito, RafaelOrtega, DiegoAguilera Guirao, AntonioMontiel, NataliaPintos, IlduaraDíaz de Santiago, AlbertoBaza, BegoñaSoriano, VicenteMendoza, Carmen deSpanish HTLV Network2024-01-292023Ayerdi 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.2023.1277793http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32031Background: 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.engCopyright © 2023 Ayerdi, Benito, Ortega, Aguilera, Montiel, Pintos, Díaz de Santiago, Baza, Soriano and de Mendoza. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/HTLV-1Sexually transmitted infectionsSyphilisHIVTransmissionjournal article10.3389/fimmu.2023.1277793open access