Central Africa: Cradle of Divergent PTLV Types

Primate T-lymphotropic viruses (PTLV) infect both humans(HTLV) and simians (STLV) and have been associated withleukemia and lymphoma as well as with neurologic disorders.The human T-cell lymphotropic viruses type 1 and 2, first isolatedmore than two decades ago, both exist in different subtypesthat are mainly found in Central Africa (HTLV-1a, -1b, -1d, -1e,-1f and HTLV-2a, -2b, -2d). However, the subtype HTLV-1c hasonly been identified in Melanesia and the Pacific islands, whilethe cosmopolitan subtype HTLV-1a of African origin has managedto spread worldwide, probably due to the increased humanmobility during the last four centuries.