Estimation of the Predictive role of Plasma Viral load on CD4 decline in HIV-1-subtype C infected subjects in India

Plasma viral load has been shown to be a meaningful prognostic marker for disease progression in untreated, HIV-1 subtype B-infected subjects in US and Western Europe and therefore used as a prognostic marker for disease progression in HIV-1 subtype B-infected subjects. Because of high expenses of commercially available viral load assays, the role of viral load in disease progression has not been evaluated in HIV-1 subtype C infected patients in India. We developed an inexpensive realtime RTPCR assay to quantify viral load in plasma of HIV-1 subtype C-infected subjects from India and used it in a longitudinal analysis of viral load and CD4 cell number in HIV infected subjects from Calcutta, India. The realtime assay can quantify plasma viral