SERUM LEVELS OF VIRUS BURDEN IN EARLY-STAGE HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 DISEASE IN WOMEN

The fundamental clinical, viral, and immunologic features of early-sta ge human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) disease were examined i n a seroprevalent cohort of 28 men and 14 women assessed longitudinall y at three equally dispersed time points over a mean of 43 months. The re were no gender differences in the relative risk of developing AIDS- defining end points or death, The median serum RNA levels assessed at the three study time points were 3.3-, 4.9-, and 1.5-fold lower, respe ctively, in women than in men. This suggests that while serum virus lo ad may be as powerful a correlate of disease status in women as it is in men, the absolute values of the virus levels may be different in th e 2 populations, These observations may have implications for the inte rpretation of levels of virus burden in women for the assessment of di sease progression, transmission, and treatment.