A comparison of the performance of nine commercially available anti-HTLV-I screening assays.

The performance of eight anti-HTLV-I enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) and one particle agglutination assay was compared with respect to sensitivity, specificity and delta values, by testing a panel containing 99 anti-HTLV-I positive and 126 anti-HTLV-I negative samples which had been characterised by western blot and some by radioimmunoprecipitation assay. The estimated sensitivities produced by these assays ranged between 99% and 100% and estimated specificities were between 95.2% and 100%.

HTLV-I among Northern Territory blood donors.

Objective: Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) is known to be endemic among Northern Territory (NT) Aborigines, therefore evidence was sought of HTLV-I infection in NT blood donors.

Design: Samples were screened for HTLV-I antibodies using the Serodia HTLV-I particle-agglutination assay. Repeatedly reactive sera were tested by western blot.

HTLV-I infection in selected populations in Australia and the western Pacific region.

The prevalence of infection with human T lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I) in 19,975 blood samples from Australia and the western Pacific was determined by measuring the presence of specific antibody (anti-HTLV-I) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with confirmation by western blot and/or radioimmunoprecipitation techniques. In Australia no evidence of HTLV-I infection was found in injecting drug users, patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), subjects attending a sexually transmitted diseases clinic, female prostitutes, or transfusion recipients. A low prevalence of infection was detected in people with haemophilia (0.