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Terence Chorba, MD
Centers for Disease Control Atlanta

JAMA. 1986;256(22):3094.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

A recent article by Robert-Guroff et al¹ reported a high prevalence of antibodies specific for human T-cell lymphotropic virus type II (HTLV-II) in intravenous drug users studied in New York City. Serological evidence of infection with this virus has also been reported among intravenous drug users in Britain.² These are alarming reports, because HTLV-II has only been isolated in a total of four patients, two of whom were members of groups considered at risk for infection with hepatitis B virus and HTLV-III: one was a known intravenous drug user³ and one was a patient with severe hemophilia A.⁴ Although the role of HTLV-II in human disease remains obscure, the observation of a high prevalence of antibodies to HTLV-II in intravenous drug users and the fact that two of the four persons from whom HTLV-II has been isolated had multiple potential exposures to blood-borne . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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