Elizabeth Donegan, MD; Michael P. Busch, MD, PhD; Janice A. Galleshaw, MD; George M. Shaw, MD, PhD; James W. Mosley, MD; Transfusion Safety Study Group*
Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is an etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia and of spastic myelopathy. Type II virus (HTLV-II) has been recovered from three patients with hairy cell leukemia and from one with exfoliative erythroderma (1-3), but the lack of evidence that HTLV-II infection is associated with other diseases is not necessarily meaningful because generally available serologic tests do not distinguish between HTLV-I and HTLV-II (4). The knowledge that HTLV-I can be transmitted by transfusion (5) prompted routine blood-donor screening in the United States and notification of past recipients of blood from positive donors (6, 7).
The
Donegan E, Busch MP, Galleshaw JA, Shaw GM, Mosley JW, Transfusion Safety Study Group*. Transfusion of Blood Components from a Donor with Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type II (HTLV-II) Infection. Ann Intern Med. ;113:555–556. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-113-7-555
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Published: Ann Intern Med. 1990;113(7):555-556.
DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-113-7-555
Infectious Disease.
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