Contact Admin. Out of 90 FSW, six 6. The socio-demographic as well the comportamental characteristics of the HTLVinfected FSW are as follow: female of 25 years of age, white color, birth place in Imbituba, four-year old son who was breastfed, incomplete elementary school, no steady partner, one month in prostitution, one client per day, vaginal and oral sexual practices, no sex during menses, no use of condoms, use of alcohol, sex with IDU, and no blood transfusion.
All these data were obtained after she signed the informed consent, and based on the interview and the answers of a questionnaire. At this time, she was attended by physicians and no HTLVassociated disease was detected. On the other hand, she was pregnant, and she was advised not to breastfeed her offspring. Differently to those occurring in elderly patients from Japan where HTLV-1 has been endemic, in Bahia, Brazil HTLV-1 has been detected in younger people, including some cases diagnosed in adolescents who presented severe eczema during childhood 1,3.
We do not know the means of HTLV-1 acquisition by this FSW from Imbituba, SC, but since she denied the use of intravenous illicit drugs and previous blood transfusion, and because she does not belong to HTLV-1 endemic populations from Brazil or elsewhere, we could speculate that the sexual practices vaginal and oral sex without use of condom was the major via of virus acquisition.
In accordance to this, during the interview she mentioned the presence of ulcers in vagina, which could propitiate the virus entrance during a sexual contact with an HTLVinfected man. Several reports pointed unprotected sexual contact mostly with IDU, and histories of sexually transmitted diseases as risk factors for acquiring such retroviruses 2, ; these seem to be the causes of infection in the index case.
Paulo, , Rio de J. Oswaldo Cruz, , Lancet, , Correspondence to: Dra. All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
