Transmission of HTLV-I and HIV Among Homosexual Men in Trinidad
- Courtenay Bartholomew, MD;
- W. Carl Saxinger, PhD;
- Jeffrey W. Clark, MD;
- Mitchell Gail, MD, PhD;
- Ann Dudgeon, PhD;
- Bisram Mahabir, MD;
- Barbara Hull-Drysdale, PhD;
- Farley Cleghorn, MD;
- Robert C. Gallo, MD;
- William A. Blattner, MD
- From the General Hospital, University of West Indies (Drs Bartholomew and Cleghorn), the Venereology Division, Caribbean Medical Centre (Dr Mahabir), and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, Pan American Health Organization (Dr Hull-Drysdale), Port of Spain, Trinidad; the Laboratory of Tumor Cell Biology (Drs Saxinger and Gallo) and the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, Division of Cancer Etiology (Drs Clark, Gail, and Blattner), National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md; and ORI Inc, Bethesda, Md (Dr Dudgeon).
Abstract
Risk for human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection was evaluated in 100 homosexual or bisexual men from Trinidad. High seropositivity for HTLV-I (15% vs 2.4% in the general population) was linked to duration of homosexuality and numbers of partners, suggesting that HTLV-I, like HIV, can be transmitted by homosexual sex. Forty percent of homosexuals compared with 0.19% of the general population were seropositive for HIV, and sexual contact with US homosexual men and prior history of gonorrhea were major risk factors. The seroprevalence of HIV was three times higher than that for HTLV-I, suggesting that HIV is more efficiently transmitted, especially since HIV appears to have been recently introduced into Trinidad. Altered immune status was prominent in individuals infected with HIV and coinfected with HIV and HTLV-I. Whether HIV/HTLV-I coinfection amplifies clinical effects is a hypothesis that will require further evaluation.
(JAMA 1987;257:2604-2608)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to the Family Studies Section, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892 (Dr Blattner).
