Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 05/05) - Health officials in the NWT are not concerned by the presence of a rare sexually transmitted disease confirmed in Nunavut.

"We have no reason to be concerned at this time," said Dr. Andre Corriveau, the chief medical health officer of the NWT.

On Sept. 30, the Department of Health and Social Services in Nunavut confirmed that the HTLV-1 virus was detected in a Nunavut resident for the first time in June. One person who had the virus has since died of lymphoma.

The Health department refused to say exactly how many cases are in the territory or which communities are affected.

There will be a step-by-step investigation to look at the chances of the virus spreading to the NWT. The first step is to decide if anyone in the NWT has contacts with the infected people in Nunavut, said Corriveau. "At this point, unless we find some additional information, the risk (of infection here) is no more than in the rest of Canada," he said.

The Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus, Type 1 infects the blood and can cause cancer of the blood and diseases of the nervous system, according to information provided by the Nunavut department of Health and Social Services.

The HTLV-1 virus is transmitted through sexual contact, sharing needles and syringes and from infected mothers to their infants during breastfeeding.

Symptoms may involve a loss of strength in the lower limbs, loss of bladder control or cancer of the blood.

There have been no recorded cases of HTLV-1 in the NWT according to communicable disease specialist Wanda White. When patients come in with symptoms of an immuno deficiency disorder the test for HTLV-1 is administered in conjunction with other appropriate tests.

Unlike HIV, the test for HTLV-1 cannot be processed at the lab in Stanton Territorial Hospital so it is sent to the provincial lab.

"It's rare," said Dr. Kami Kondola, president of the NWT Medical Association.

Every year in Canada, 10 to 12 cases of people with HTLV-1 are reported. The virus was first identified in 1978 and has also been found in Japan, the Caribbean, Africa and in South and North America.

Canadian Blood Services has been screening all blood donations for the virus since April 1990.

Only four per cent of the people who are infected get sick. There is no known treatment for the disease.

- With files from Jillian Dickens