Presence of HTLV-IIb among HIV-1 positive IDUs in Argentina

BERINI C, EIRIN ME, PANDO MA, SALOMON H, WEISSENBACHER M, BIGLIONE M.

Baltimore, MD, USA

Congreso; 2006 International Meeting of the Institute of Human Virology; 2006

Institute of Human Virology

Background: HTLV-IIb is endemic among aborigines in the northeast region of Argentina. HTLV-II is also present in IDUs and in Argentina, only one case has been previously described as subtype IIa. Materials and Methods: A nested-PCR for LTR-II was performed in 11 IDUs HTLV-II seropositive from Buenos Aires city. Neighbor-joining and Parsimony trees were carried out using Phylip package program. Results: Ten of the samples clustered with the HTLV-IIb subgroup while 1 of the samples grouped with the IIa subgroup closer to Brazilian aborigine isolates (Kay139, Kay73 and BRAZ.A21). All individuals were also co-infected with HIV. Conclusions: These results correlate with previous studies conducted among IDUs from New York city, Vietnam and Southern Europe where HTLV-IIb was more frequently found. In contrast, IIa is found among IDUs from other regions of USA, Europe and Brazil. This is the first time in which subtype b is described in Argentina among IDUs. Its presence may be due to migrations of aborigines to big cities and the introduction of drugs in these populations. In the last years there was also a high rate of migration and tourism to and for Argentina, especially from Southern Europe and USA, which could have contributed to the spread of HTLV-IIb in our country. Moreover, the IIa sample was found to be related with Brazilian aborigine sequences in contrast to the previous Argentinian IDU which was closer to African isolates