Prevalence of human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-I) in general inhabitants in non-adult T-cell leukemia (ATL)-endemic Hokkaido, Japan

In contrast to adult T-cell leukemia (ATL)-endemic southwestern Japan, the northernmost island Hokkaido has a small number of ATL patients annually. In this study, we surveyed 32,587 healthy inhabitants throughout Hokkaido for antibodies to human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-I). Only 244 individuals (0.8%) were seropositive as HTLV-I carriers; 0.6% (123 of 19,512) in males and 0.9% (121 of 13,075) in females. In some areas, however, the inhabitants had relatively high seropositivity (2%). The highest rate was 5.2% with a cluster of ATL patients in a certain town of the Hidaka area near the Pacific Ocean, in southeast Hokkaido.