Highly endemic human T-lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) infection in a Venezuelan Guahibo amerindian group

Sera from 166 Guahibo Indians (55% of the population) living in southwest Venezuela were screened by enzyme-linked immunoassay for antibodies to human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) I and II. Positive samples were confirmed by immunofluorescence and Western blot. Forty-one Guahibos (24.8%) were found to be seropositive. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis of proviral DNA in mononuclear cell lysates revealed the virus to be HTLV-II. Prevalence increased with age, and sexual contact with HTLV-II-seropositive partners was identified as a risk factor for infection. PCR amplification of a region of the pol gene, utilizing the primer pair SK110/SK111, with subsequent digestion of the 140-base-pair amplification products with HinfI and MseI restriction enzymes, showed an HTLV-II subtype-b restriction pattern in all cases. These data suggest that the substrain infecting this Guahibo community belongs to the b subtype, the most frequent among Paleo-Amerindian populations.