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Origins of HTLV-1 in South America (letter 2)

Nature Medicine volume 6, pages 232–233 (2000)Cite this article

To the editor

Li et al. describe the presence of HTLV-I proviral DNA in one of two globin-positive archival samples isolated from 1,500-year-old Andean mummies1, indicating a prevalence of infection of around 50% at that time. However, the current prevalence of HTLV-I in American Indians from Latin America ranges from 0% to 15% (ref. 7).

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Figure 1: Genetic variability in Cosmopolitan HTLV-1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rega Institute for Medical Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, B-3000, Belgium

    Anne-Mieke Vandamme & Marco Salemi

  2. Virus Reference Laboratory University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    William W. Hall & Martha J. Lewis

  3. Laboratoire de Virologie Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, B-1200, Belgium

    Patrick Goubau

Authors
  1. Anne-Mieke Vandamme
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  4. Patrick Goubau
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  5. Marco Salemi
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Vandamme, AM., Hall, W., Lewis, M. et al. Origins of HTLV-1 in South America (letter 2). Nat Med 6, 232–233 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/73023

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