There are two retroviruses in the oncoretroviridae group which cause human disease; these are type I and type II human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV).
HTLV was the first human retrovirus to be isolated. It is spread by sexual contact, from mother to child and through contaminated blood products.
HTLV-I is endemic in southern Japan, equatorial Africa and South America.
HTLV is able to avoid clearance by the host's immune system by remaining in the latent state, as a provirus within the host's genome.
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.