Bahiana promotes Annual Meeting of the HTLV Center

Patients with the HTLV virus, family members, health professionals and those interested in knowing more about the disease will gather, on May 29, at the Annual Meeting of the HTLV Center at Bahiana, national reference unit in the reception and treatment of patients with the virus.

The program starts at 8:30 am and takes place in room 105 of the Academic Unit Classroom Brotas da Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, at Av. D. João VI, 275, Brotas.

Carried out in partnership with the Nursing course at Bahiana, the Tutorial Education Program of the Physiotherapy course at Bahiana/FAPESB and Associação HTLVida, the meeting aims to debate perspectives for improvements in the care of patients with HTVL and analyze the return of projects and research developed by the HTLV Center. 


HTLV (Human cell lymphotropic virus)
HTLV is a retrovirus in the same family as HIV, which infects the human T cell, a type of lymphocyte that is important for the body's immune system.

There are two types of this virus: HTLV-I and HTLV-2. Type I is associated with serious degenerative neurological (tropical spastic paraparesis) and hematological diseases such as leukemia and adult human T-cell lymphoma (ATL). Polymyositis, polyarthritis, uveitis and dermatitis are diseases that are related to this viral type. The second type still has no clarification on association with any pathology.


Transmission
Similar to the HIV virus, HTLV is transmitted through sex (unprotected sex), in blood transfusions, through the shared use of syringes and needles and from mother to child during pregnancy, during breastfeeding and at the time of delivery.


HTLV Carrier Service Center
The HTLV Center provides integrated and multidisciplinary care to individuals infected with HTLV, aiming at their physical and mental well-being. The service ranges from laboratory diagnosis, screening and confirmation of the infection, to medical follow-up, psychological and physical therapy support.

The center not only serves patients from Salvador, but from the entire state of Bahia. Most of them are made up of needy individuals, being assisted by the SUS. Due to its growing demand and the function of being multidisciplinary, it has the support of the Teaching-Assistance Outpatient Clinic of the Bahiana - ADAB that provides a team consisting of a dermatologist, nurse, physiotherapist, gynecologist, infectious disease specialist, neurologist, obstetrician, ophthalmologist, psychologist and psychiatrist.