Prevention of Human T-cell Lymphotropic Viruses (HTLV) Infection

F. Prevention

Screening of blood donations for HTLV-I is now routinely carried out in high prevalence areas such as Japan. However, there is a trend towards screening in low prevalence areas as well e.g. USA and France. In other low prevalence areas, screening is only carried out on donors who originate from high prevalence areas e.g. Japan and the Carribean. In Japan, antenatal screening for HTLV-1 antibody is carried out for pregnant wowen. Those who are positive are advised not to breastfeed their infants. Research is being carried out on the development of a vaccine against HTLV-I.