HTLV-1 en una población mapuche / Prevalence of HTLV-1 in healthy mapuches

The seroprevalence of HTLV-1 in 405 serum samples form South American Indians, mapuches, from the ICth region of Chile was investigated using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Six samples were postive and only 3 of them were also positive by western blott and radio immuno precipitation assay. This corresponds to a seroprevalece of 0.74% for HTLV-1 in healthy mapuches, wich differs from that observed in other populations troughout the world. Additional studies are necessary to evaluate the real magnitude of HTLV-1 infection in Chile