Epidemiological Aspects and World Distribution of HTLV-1 Infection

The human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1), identified as the first human oncogenic retrovirus 30 years ago, is not an ubiquitous virus. HTLV-1 is present throughout the world, with clusters of high endemicity located often nearby areas where the virus is nearly absent. The main HTLV-1 highly endemic regions are the Southwestern part of Japan, sub-Saharan Africa and South America, the Caribbean area, and foci in Middle East and Australo-Melanesia. The origin of this puzzling geographical or rather ethnic repartition is probably linked to a founder effect in some groups with the persistence of a high viral transmission rate. Despite different socio-economic and cultural environments, the HTLV-1 prevalence…

• AN
  Agence Nationale de la Recherche

  Awards: 10-LABX-62-IBEID, ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID, ANR-10, ANR-10-LABX-62
• UP
  Université Paris Diderot
• UO
  University of California, San Francisco