Risk factors associated with HTLV-1 vertical transmission in Brazil: longer breastfeeding, higher maternal proviral load and previous HTLV-1-infected offspring

HTLV-1 is transmitted primarily either through sexual intercourse or from mother to child. The mother/child pairs were classified as seroconcordant or serodiscordant. We analyzed mother to child transmission (MTCT) according to sociodemographic, clinical and epidemiological characteristics of the mother, child's gender and duration of breastfeeding. Between June 2006 and August 2016 we followed 192 mothers with HTLV-1 infection (mean age 41 years old), resulting in 499 exposed offspring, 288 (57.7%) of whom were tested for HTLV-1, making up the final sample for the study, along with their 134 respective mothers. Among the tested mother/child pairs, 41 (14.2%) were HTLV-1 positive, highlighted that seven of 134 family clusters concentrated 48.8% of positive cases. Variables associated with a positive child: breastfeeding duration ≥12 months, maternal PVL ≥100 copies/10⁴ PBMC, mother's age at delivery >26 years old, and HTLV-1 in more than one child of the same mother. In a multiple logistic regression, breastfeeding ≥12 months, higher maternal PVL and ≥2 previous HTLV-1-infected children remained independently associated with the outcome. Thus, high maternal PVL and breastfeeding beyond 12 months were independently associated with MTCT of the HTLV-1 infection. Our results reinforce the need for both prenatal HTLV screening in endemic areas and for advising mothers on breastfeeding.