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Association between Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 and 2 (HTLV 1/2) infection and tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

HTLV-1 infection alters the immune function and increases the risk of several infectious diseases. In this meta-analysis, we assess the association between HTLV- 1/2 and active tuberculosis (TB).

Methods

Four databases were searched for relevant articles that describe the frequency of HTLV- 1/2 infection among TB patients and control groups of healthy individuals or patients without a history of TB. Data were analyzed using the EasyMA software.

Results

The search yielded two hundred and eight articles. Six met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The estimated relative risk of HTLV- 1/2 infection in TB patients was 3.25 times higher than in the population based control groups.

Conclusion

Patients with active TB have a higher risk of HTLV- 1/2 infection. Prospective studies involving latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in HTLV-1-infected individuals are necessary to evaluate the potential benefit of TB chemoprophylaxis.

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Correspondence to Sérgio Arruda.

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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Arruda, S., Loureiro, C., Almeida, M. et al. Association between Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 and 2 (HTLV 1/2) infection and tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis. Retrovirology 8 (Suppl 1), A80 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-8-S1-A80

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4690-8-S1-A80

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