[Seroepidemiologic data on viral infections (HTLV-I and LAV/HTLV-III) in the Caribbean region and intertropical Africa].

Since two years our laboratory is involved in the sero-epidemiology of retroviruses in Martinique, French Guiana and Equatorial Africa. French West Indies is an endemic area for HTLV-I with 3 to 5% positivity in blood donors. Such a prevalence increases with age in the general population, reaching 30% after 60 years of age. Data are given here regarding hematological and neurological syndromes observed in Martinique and associated with HTLV-I. Furthermore, we recently discovered an association between HTLV-I and the neuro-myelopathy named endemic Tropical Spastic Paraparesis. Such an association has been confirmed in Jamaica, South West Japan and Ivory coast. French West Indies appeared quite free of LAV/HTLV-III in 1983/1984 but AIDS cases have been increasingly diagnosed in 1985. Recent data (early 1986) from the Blood Transfusion Center in Martinique (Dr. N. Monplaisir) indicate that 0.45% of blood donors have LAV/HTLV-III antibodies, as detected by the ELISA test. We present here a comparative view of preliminary prevalence data for LAV/HTLV-III in different areas of Equatorial Africa.