Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Infection in a Patient with Arthritis in Mozambique: Molecular Characterization of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Isolate

Last year, we published the results from a cross- sectional survey on the prevalence of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 and 2 (HTLV-1/2) in individuals from public health centers in Mozambique. 1 Briefly, we observed an overall HTLV-1/2 prevalence of 2.3% (2.9% in female and 1.1% in male subjects) that increased with age, and a regional variation in prevalence, 2.4%, 3.9%, and 0.9%, in Northern, Central, and Southern Mozambique, respectively.No association between HTLV-1 infection and sociodemographic variables or HIV status was detected, and no case of HTLV-2 infection was detected as well.Interestingly, one of 17 HTLV-1-infected individuals went to the health center because of rheumatic pain, and we speculated as to whether this symptom could be related to HTLV-1 infection. 1In the present investigation we decided to add some information concerning this case, searching for epidemiological correlates, proviral load, and HTLV-1 subtype carried by this patient.Of note, there are some controversial studies associating HTLV-1 with rheumatoid arthritis, 2-5 and to our knowledge there is only one published study on HTLV-1 genotyping in Mozambique, 6 and there is another study from Portugal that characterized HTLV-1 strains from two Mozambican immigrants. 7sing data obtained from an interview and the questionnaire, which included detailing socioeconomic, demographic, and clinical features, we identified this patient as a 54-year-old widowed woman, born in Nampula (Northern Mozambique), who denied any previous blood transfusion or sexually transmitted diseases, and who complained of rheumatic pain.Her blood tested HIV-1/2 negative and HTLV-1 positive in serological assays. 1 All blood samples from Mozambican individuals were collected by fingerprick on filter paper, dried at room temperature, and sent on dry ice to the Instituto Adolfo Lutz, a reference laboratory in human retroviruses in Sa ˜o Paulo, Brazil, for serological and molecular analysis. 1