Access

Letters to Editor


Nature Medicine 6, 232 - 233 (2000)
doi:10.1038/73023

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

Anne-Mieke Vandamme1, William W. Hall2, Martha J. Lewis2, Patrick Goubau3 & Marco Salemi1

  1. Rega Institute for Medical Research, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
  2. Virus Reference Laboratory University College Dublin Dublin, Ireland
  3. Laboratoire de Virologie Université Catholique de Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium

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.