In a brightly lit lab in the outback town of Alice Springs, researchers have been inspecting vials of blood infected with an ancient virus that has lurked in Australia for thousands of years.

Key points: Australia has the highest levels in the world of the HTLV-1 virus

Australia has the highest levels in the world of the HTLV-1 virus It is a blood-borne virus that can be sexually transmitted or passed from mother to child

It is a blood-borne virus that can be sexually transmitted or passed from mother to child Researchers say leukaemia caused by the virus could be "rapidly fatal"

It is called T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1— or HTLV-1 — and Australia has the highest levels in the world.

A distant relative of HIV, it is a blood-borne virus that can be sexually transmitted or passed from mother to child.

The virus can lead to inflammation of the skin, eyes and lungs.

"You're also at risk of developing things like leukemia, so blood cancer, and becoming disabled through spinal cord injuries," researcher Joel Liddle said.

"Once your pro-viral load is high, you're at a high risk of poor health."

Researchers said, in most cases, leukaemia caused by the virus could be "rapidly fatal".

'Out of sight, out of mind'

HTLV-1 is most common in ancient cultures, with cases being found in southern Japan, South America and Africa.

The virus is thought to have arrived in Australian from Indonesia thousands of years ago, but it continues to affect Aboriginal communities in the heart of the country.

Researchers from the Baker Institute for Heart and Diabetes in Alice Springs estimated 45 per cent of Indigenous adults in central Australia had HTLV-1.

"In remote Australia, it's so out of sight, out of mind with a lot of things, health is just one of those things," Mr Liddle said.

One of the difficulties with this virus is that most of those who have HTLV-1, don't know they have it, and a vast number of Aboriginal communities have never been tested.

"I think there's probably confusion and a little bit of anger, too. People [question] why haven't they been told about this," Mr Liddle said.

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In central Australia, researchers estimated, there were about 5,000 people infected.

"That's just in our region, we've got no idea what's happening over the borders," infectious diseases expert Dr Lloyd Einsiedel said.

"The worrying thing is that it's now spreading with population movement and that's true around the world.

"We've been involved in cases in Adelaide and also there are cases in Perth."

'The most potent carcinogenic virus that we know of'

Dr Einsiedel said HTLV-1 was associated with inflammatory conditions, including bronchiectasis, a chronic infection of the airways, which appears at "phenomenal" rates in central Australia among Indigenous patients.

"The risk of bronchiectasis is dramatically increased if you're HTLV-1 infected and if you've got a lot of the virus in your blood," he said.

Dr Einsiedel said he believed it was "the most potent carcinogenic virus that we know of".

The amount of virus that is in someone's blood is critical to determining what the risk of disease is. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

But HTLV-1 is not an "all or nothing" disease and won't affect every person who has the virus, according to Dr Einsiedel.

"I think that's one of the reasons it's taken some time for us to really understand what the virus is capable of doing, it's the amount of virus in the blood that is critically important in determining what the risk of disease is."

Researchers at the Baker Institute are collaborating with five remote Aboriginal communities — which can't be named for privacy reasons — to get a better picture of how widespread it is in desert communities.

"We met with a men's group, and there was about 30 blokes present and they were very highly engaged but I don't think that's to be unexpected, we're talking about health and health's everyone's issue," Mr Liddle said.

After 9,000 years, Australia 'is a long way behind'

While it's been endemic to Australia for an estimated 9,000 years, Dr Einsiedel believes HTLV-1 has been badly neglected.

"I think we're a long way behind," he said.

"We rely a lot on fly-in-fly-out workers so we need to do a lot more to educate people about what the risks are, and also what the disease associations are," he said.

Mr Liddle said a response to high rates of HTLV-1 in Aboriginal communities demanded a delicate approach. ( ABC News: Tom Hancock )

There is currently no coordinated public health response to HTLV-1 in Australia.

"It concerns me a lot, but we need data before we advocate for a particular strategy," Dr Einsiedel said.

"What we really need is work on collecting all the data over the next couple of years, and then work on developing — in a very mature and thoughtful way — what a public health response might be."

A spokesman for Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt said the Federal Government was funding research that could lead to a new surveillance protocol and public health guidelines.

"The Government has allocated $6.1 million to the Central Australia Academic Health Science Centre, with its first priority project to be a study addressing HTLV-1," he said.

The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute said the Federal Government had also contributed to a national report it was heading into the current state of HTLV-1 in Australia.

It is estimated that between five and 10 million people are affected across the world, but Dr Einsiedel pointed to Japan as the leader in HTLV-1 research and treatment, where a very "robust public health response" was adopted by health authorities to combat high rates of HTLV-1 in southern Japan.

"They've been able to reduce their incidence rates by around 80 per cent, and that's largely by addressing the issue of breastfeeding."

Dr Einsiedel said it was premature to recommend such a response in Australia.

"There's a lot of reasons to breastfeed. Prolonged breastfeeding may be something that could be addressed but that's up to Aboriginal people to decide."

For Mr Liddle, an Arrernte man, a response to high rates of HTLV-1 demands a delicate approach, with intensive education work delivered in Aboriginal languages.

"I think there's a lot of work to do, certainly I think at the moment, what I see as our main thing is to engage sensitively around the issues because we're dealing with people's health, and all the things and complexities that are going on in remote communities, so we have to be really mindful of that."