Serological Evidence of HTLV-1 Infection among Voluntary Blood Donors and Cancer Patients from Kerala State

Opening of the article

279 sera from cancer patients admitted at Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Trivandrum and 600 sera from voluntary blood donors from Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST),Trivandrum, were investigated for the presence of antibody against HTLV-1 virus by “Serodia-HTLV-1” – a Passive Gelatin Particle Agglutination test kits from M/ s Fujirebio Inc., Tokyo, Japan. 3.2 % of patients suffering from various types of malignant cancers and 0.7% of voluntary blood donors were found to be positive for HTLV-1 infections. The male cancer patients were more often positive than females - 3.2% and 2.4 %, respectively.