Introduction: The Human T Lymphotropic virus type-1 was first retrovirus identified and associated epidemiologically to leukemia/lymphoma T-cell adult (LLTA), tropical spastic parapesis (TSP), polymyositis, arthritis, uveitis, skin lesions and strongyloidiasis and other diseases. The vertical transmission has fundamental role on HTLV silent dispersion and the implementation of policies needs epidemiological indicators to develop prevention campaigns of infection transmission. Objective: To investigate the infection by the human T lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1 and HTLV-2) with parturients attended on public maternity of Belém, Pará, Brazil. Materials and Methods: A representative sample of parturients was investigated on period of March to August 2013, to detection of antibodies anti-HTLV by imunoenzimatic method (ELISA) and for research proviral genome by polymerase chain reaction. Results: The seroprevalence of 0.2% (1/452) identified one infected parturient who reported to be intravenous drug user and to have multiple sexual partners, without genotype identification. The postpartum carrier of HTLV did not breastfeed her newborn son, who showed no anti-HTLV antibodies one year after birth, like her mother and her older daughters, excluding the vertical familial transmission. Conclusion: This study identified a low but present prevalence of HTLV in pregnant women attended at a public maternity, as has been identified in other units of primary and secondary health care throughout Brazil, demonstrating the need for control measures of this infection in all levels of public health attention.
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