GN warns all residents at risk if they have unprotected sex

An extremely rare sexually transmitted virus may affect more than 120 Nunavummiut, a health study has found.

Of these, three or four may become seriously ill.

The Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus, Type 1, also known as HLTV-1, can produce fatal blood cancer and other ailments in about four in every 100 people who become infected. These symptoms take between 10 to 20 years to appear.

Wearing a condom during sex is best way to avoid exposure to HLTV-1 and remain healthy, Government of Nunavut health officials say.

Last week, the GN announced the results of its HLTV-1 blood-screening program, which found a 3.7 per 1,000 rate of infection in Nunavut – that is, the virus was detected in a bit less than four in 1,000 blood samples.

In accordance with standard public health protocol, the GN's Aug. 3 news release does not say which Nunavut communities had the highest rate of infection with the virus.

But it warns "people who do not live in the affected communities are not at any less risk of becoming infected if they do not practice safer sex."

In other words, all Nunavummiut are at risk, no matter where they live, if they are having sex without condoms.

The virus may also be spread through needle sharing, blood transfusions and breastfeeding.

The GN's chief medical officer of health recommends anyone who has had unprotected sex or shares needles should take a free, confidential test for HTLV-1. This test is available at all community health centres and at the family practice clinic in Iqaluit.

Nunavut's rate of infection for HLTV-1 is 35 times higher than the rate for donated blood in Canada.

However, Nunavut's rate of infection for HLTV-1 is much lower than in southern Japan, the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea and parts of Africa, where the virus affects about six in 1,000 people.

The GN also notes the rate for HTLV-1 infection in Nunavut is much lower than the rate for the sexually-transmitted disease chlamydia. There are 56.9 cases found in every 1,000 tested for chlamydia.

But chlamydia, which may cause nasty side effects and sterility, never killed anyone – yet HTLV-1 has.

In 2005, a Nunavut man died of the virus. About four in 100 people who are infected with the virus will get sick from the virus – and they may fall very ill.

Their symptoms may involve a loss of strength in the lower limbs and a loss of bladder control. Eventually, victims may develop cancers of the blood and diseases of the nervous system, and may die.

"The impact of HTLV-1-associated diseases on individuals and their communities is often devastating," says a 2006 paper on "HTLV in the Americas" from the Pan American journal of public health.

Several studies show the social and environmental factors associated with poverty may influence the spread of HTLV-1.

Public health counselling and education of high-risk individuals and populations can be "of great importance" in fighting HTLV-1, suggests the paper.

For its study of HTLV-1, the GN routinely screened every pregnant woman in Nunavut for the virus and it also tested leftover blood samples. The GN also checked blood of the close relatives of those known to be infected with the HTLV-1.

HTLV-1 was first detected in a Nunavut man with adult T-cell lymphoma-leukemia in June 2005. By October, the man had died from an illness linked to the virus, and up to 20 others had been found to be carrying the virus.

HTLV-1 may be transmitted through unsafe sex, dirty needles, tainted blood and breastfeeding. The virus comes from the same family as HIV, which leads to the development of the deadly autoimmune disease AIDS.

The last known cases in Canada prior to its discovery in Nunavut occurred in 1993, when three people were found to be infected with HTLV-1.