Analysis of HTLV Infection Status among Voluntary Blood Donors in Yulin City

Objective: To comprehensively understand the infection status of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) among the voluntary blood donors in Yulin City and accurately assess the impact of HTLV on the current situation of blood safety in Yulin City. Methods: A total of 113,588 blood samples from voluntary blood donors collected in Yulin City from January 2023 to June 2024 were selected. The HTLV-I/II antibody screening was carried out on these samples using the HTLV enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. For the samples with reactive screening results, further confirmation was performed by means of immunoblotting assay and real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Results: Among the 113,588 blood samples from voluntary blood donors, 20 samples showed positive reactions for HTLV-I/II antibodies, with an initial screening positive reaction rate of 1.76？. After confirmation, 8 of them were confirmed to be HTLV-I positive, with a positive rate of 0.7？, and no HTLV-II positive blood donors were detected. Moreover, all the HTLV-I positive blood donors were Han people from Yulin. In addition, by following up the 4 children of a female positive blood donor, it was found that her eldest daughter was confirmed to be HTLV-I positive, while the test results of the other children were negative. Conclusion: At present, there is no HTLV-II infection among the voluntary blood donors in Yulin City. There is a relatively low level of HTLV-I infection mainly among the local people. Continuous monitoring is still needed in the future. Emphasis should be placed on strengthening the publicity, education and testing work for the close relatives of the confirmed positive blood donors and women during pregnancy and childbirth periods, so as to prevent and reduce the HTLV infection caused by family transmission.