Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1983. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Friday, February 11, 1983
They said the virus has been isolated recently from white blood cells of four patients in the United States, one in Israel, one in the West Indies and three members of a family in northwest Japan.
The virulent form of adult leukemia that is associated with the virus appears more common in isolated parts of southern Japan. Japanese researchers reportedly are trying to develop a vaccine to prevent it.
The cancer institute said patients with symptoms similar to that particular type of leukemia, and with antibodies indicating they have been exposed to the virus, have been found in the southeastern United States, Boston, Seattle and Alaska, and in Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana and Ecuador.
The U.S. cases have been observed predominantly among blacks.
The virus, called human T-cell leukemia virus, or HTLV, is of a type known as a retrovirus and is similar to those that cause leukemia in cats, cows, chickens and nonhuman primates.
"Current information suggests that HTLV is only minimally infectious and may require prolonged, intimate contact for transmission," the cancer institute report said. "This transmission might occur within families or it could result from blood transfusions or insect bites."
Dr. Robert Gallo and associates from his lab, Litton Bionetics Inc., Kensington, Md., and the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., reported on the virus in the Feb. 18 issue of Science magazine.
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