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Updated: Aug 17, 2026
Amplifying and Quantifying HIV-1 RNA in HIV Infected Individuals with Viral Loads Below the Limit of Detection by Standard Clinical Assays
Published on: September 26, 2011
Plasma HIV-1 RNA quantitation in HIV infected adult Zimbabweans
1University of Zimbabwe Medical School, Harare, Zimbabwe. immunolo@harare.iafrica.com
Objectives:
To determine HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma of HIV infected Zimbabwean adults and to correlate these with CD4+ cell counts.
Design:
Prospective observational study.
Setting:
Specialist Immunology Laboratory, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Subjects:
49 consecutive HIV infected patients.
Main Outcome Measures:
CD4+ cell counts and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels.
Results:
Based on the CDC HIV classification system five patients were in early stage infection, 15 in middle, 17 in late and 12 in advanced stage of infection. The median CD4+ cell count was 165/microL (Q1 = 4; Q3 = 866). The median HIV-1 RNA levels were 73,097 RNA copies/ml (Q1 = 753; Q3 = 750,000). Eighty percent of the patients had HIV-1 RNA levels > 10,000 copies/ml and 49% had > 100,000 RNA copies/ml. Median viral loads among the four categories of infection were found to be highly significant (p < 0.001). The correlation between CD4+ cell counts and HIV-1 RNA copies for the 49 patients was highly significant (r = -0.76; p < 0.001).
Conclusions:
High treatment HIV-1 RNA levels were determined in the majority of patients. A highly significant correlation was obtained between plasma HIV-1 RNA levels and CD4+ cell counts.
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