The relationship between clinico-immunological state and antibody prevalence for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type-I (HTLV-I) was examined for 18 hemophiliacs including one patient with von-Willebrand disease in our hospital.
Seropositivity among hemophiliacs was 53.3% for HIV and 33.3% for HTLV-I. Double infection with HIV and HTLV-I was confirmed in four cases out of 18 cases.
We could not clarlify whether infection by the proliferative member of HTLV-I or by the cytopathic member of HIV influences subsequent infection by the other subtypes or not. Cases with double infection had been frequently complicated by lymphadenopathy and advanced-immunologic abnormalities comparing with cases with single HIV infection. This findings suggests that double infection probably far more serious consequences than single infection of each virus.
Therefore, in the Nagasaki district, an ATL endemic area in Japan, we have to prevent the spread of the both HIV and HTLV-I.
