High prevalence of HTLV-II among intravenous drug abusers: PCR confirmation and typing

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to confirm the presence of human T-cell lymphotropic viruses (HTLV) in intravenous drug users (IVDU) whose sera were reactive by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) for HTLV-1/-II antibody. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 41 IFA-positive and 19 IFA-negative individuals were analyzed. HTLV sequences were detected in 39/41 IFA-positive samples; 36 were HTLV-II positive and 3 were HTLV-I positive. Two IFA antibody-positives were negative by both PCR and by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). One IFA and EIA antibody-negative sample was positive for HTLV-II by PCR. This study indicates a high prevalence of HTLV-II among IVDUs and further demonstrates the feasibility of using PCR to differentiate between HTLV-I and -II.