HTLV‐I‐Associated Illnesses in Spain

Up to June 1995, twenty-seven persons with HTLV-I infection have been identified i n Spain. Eight (29%) of them have been diagnosed as having diseases caused by HTLV-I: four had HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM)/tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), three had adult T cell leukemiailymphoma (ATL), and one developed lymphomatoid vasculitis and angiocentric T cell lymphoma. Since additional hystological information from the last patient is still not available and he was coinfected with HIV-I, we decided to mention his case separately from the other classical ATL patients. Table 1 summarizes the global features of persons with HTLV-I infection identified in Spain to date. Most of the information was presented at a forum on HTLV organized in Madrid i n October 1994 [I]. Table 2 describes the main characteristics of patients with HTLV-I disease. No cases of uveitis, subacute arthropathy, chronic dermatitis or lymphocytic alveolitis have yet been reported in Spain. The other 19 subjects were asymptomatic at the time they were diagnosed as HTLV-I infected. Four HTLV-I-seropositive natives were identified on the occasion of a blood donation, and all originated from Galicia, a region located in the northwest part of Spain