Background:

Infection with the Human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) type 1 and 2 is endemic in South America. There are only a few clinical reports of this retrovirus in patients in Ecuador, without employing virus-isolation methods or viral DNA detection. The infection is usually neglected in health care settings and by public health authorities and no country wide prevalence data are available.

Objectives:

This study aims to detect the HTLV-1/2 infection in symptomatic individuals for tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) using for the first time in Ecuador both immunological and molecular biology methodologies.

Study Design:

Blood samples of 9 symptomatic individuals with myelopathy were analyzed for the detection of the HTLV-1/2 virus with three methods: ELISA, an indirect immunofluorescence (IF) assay and a nested-PCR.

Results:

Five out of 9 (55.5%) myelopathy patients were positive for ELISA, IF and nested- HTLV-1/2 PCR.

Conclusion.

The high prevalence of HTLV-1/2 infection among myelopathy patients shows the endemicity of this retrovirus in Ecuador, the association of HTLV-1/2 infection with TSP and the need of the implementation of control and prevention interventions to overcome the further dissemination of this neglected infectious disease.

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