Prevalência da infecção e caracterização molecular no vírus linfotrópico de células T humanas 1 (HTLV-1) em remanescentes de quilombos no Brasil Central

• Autor(a) principal: NASCIMENTO, Laura Branquinho do
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFG
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tde/1840
• topic: vírus linfotrópico de células T humanas 1; HTLV-1; rmanescentes de quilombos; human T-lymphotropic virus type 1; HTLV-1; remanants of quilombos; CNPQ::CIENCIAS DA SAUDE::MEDICINA

Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) has infected human beings for thousands of years, but knowledge about the infection is only recently emerging. The virus can be transmitted from mother to child, through sexual contact, and contaminated blood products. There are endemic areas for this infection in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. African individuals were introduced in Brazil by slave trade. Some of them escaped to remote valleys and stayed in communities, called quilombos. Nowadays, their history and tradition allows them to be identified as remnants of quilombos. The epidemiological status of HTLV infection of these communities remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiological and molecular profile of HTLV infection among remnant communities in Central Brazil. This study included 1,837 individuals from 13 quilombo remnant communities in the States of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. They were interviewed about demographic and risk characteristics known to be associated with HTLV transmission. Blood samples were collected from all individuals and screened by ELISA for the presence of antibodies to HTLV 1/2. Positive samples were tested for confirmation by western blot and/or PCR. Also, they were submitted to sequencing and phylogenetic analyses. Of the 1,837 individuals, nine were found to be positive by ELISA. All of them were confirmed as being positive for HTLV-1, resulting in an anti-HTLV prevalence of 0.5% (CI 95%: 0.2-1.0). The HTLV-1 infected individuals ranged in age from 11 to 82 years. Seven were females and two were male. Regarding risk characteristics, history of breastfeeding (9/9), blood transfusion (2/9), multiple sexual partners (2/9) and history of sexually transmitted diseases (1/9) were reported by the infected individuals. The virus isolates were classified as Transcontinental subgroup of the HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype. The association of phylogenetic analysis and epidemiological data suggests the intrafamilial transmission of the HTLV-1 among three generations of one family in Boa Sorte Mato Grosso do Sul community. These findings show a low endemicity for HTLV-1 infection and the circulation of the Transcontinental subgroup of the HTLV-1 Cosmopolitan subtype in quilombo remnant communities in Central Brazil.