Retrovirus Epidemiology Donor Study HTLV Cohort (REDS)

Objectives:

To conduct a longitudinal, multicenter epidemiologic study of the human retroviruses HIV-1, HIV-2, HTLV-I, and HTLV-II in volunteer blood donors from areas of the United States that were reportedly at high and medium or low risk for HIV.

Background:

Previous evidence suggested that human T-lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) infection is associated with an increased incidence of bacterial infections.

Subjects:

The study includes 154 HTLV-I infected, 387 HTLV-II infected and 799 uninfected blood donors, all of whom were HIV type 1 seronegative at enrollment. Of the 1340 present and former blood donors examined at enrollment, 1213 (90.5%) were re-examined after approximately 2 years, including 136 HTLV-I– and 337 HTLV-II–seropositive subjects and 740 demographically stratified HTLV-seronegative subjects.

Conclusions:

The data support an increased incidence of infectious diseases among otherwise healthy HTLV-II– and HTLV-I–infected subjects. They are also consistent with the lymphoproliferative effects of HTLV-I, and with neuropathic effects of HTLV-I and HTLV-II. (Arch Intern Med. 1999;159:1485-1491)