Am J Hum Biol 1990 ;2(4):429-438
Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), the first human retrovirus to be isolated, is the cause of endemic tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP). Originally, this chronic neurological disorder was described as a disease seen among blacks of low socioeconomic status living in tropical countries, and thus for many decades TSP remained a little known curiosity outside the endemic regions. The link between HTLV-I infection and TSP was made fortuitously, when antibodies to HTLV-I were found in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of TSP patients in Jamaica, Colombia, and Martinique. Read More