Researchers said Wednesday that they were initially puzzled how 10 British men had become infected with a little-known virus, because the men hadn’t taken risks usually associated with the infection.
But then investigators learned they had participated in blood-shedding religious rituals ‐ cutting or whipping themselves ‐ in Iraq, Pakistan, India and the United Kingdom.
"There have been suggestions that you might spread infections through this route, but it has never been described before" in a published medical study, said Dr. Divya Dhasmana of St. Mary’s Hospital in London.
She is one of the authors of the study released Wednesday in a journal published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The men were infected with human T-cell leukemia virus type 1. Most people infected with the virus never develop symptoms, but some develop terrible illnesses, like a deadly blood cancer or a debilitating nervous system condition.