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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
Intermittent shedding of human immunodeficiency virus in semen: implications for sexual transmission
J N Krieger1, R W Coombs, A C Collier
1Department of Urology, Medicine and Statistics, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Purpose:
We attempt to increase our understanding of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) shedding in semen.
Materials And Methods:
We followed 16 seropositive men for up to 27 months by HIV cocultivation, with a subset evaluated using the polymerase chain reaction.
Results:
The proportion with at least 1 HIV positive semen culture increased from 3 of 16 subjects (19%) at visit 1 to 10 (63%) by visit 5. Overall, HIV was cultured from 25 of 114 specimens (22%). Shedding was intermittent for each of the 10 men with at least 1 positive culture and seminal shedding patterns were highly variable.
Conclusions:
By culture and polymerase chain reaction, HIV is shed intermittently in the semen. If cultures are performed often enough most seropositive men shed HIV in the semen.
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