Naturally HIV-1 seroconverters with lowest viral load have best prognosis, but in time lose control of viraemia

Candidate AIDS vaccines are based on the success of monkey studies, showing the ability of vaccine-induced cytotoxic T lymphocytes to control HIV-1 replication. We evaluated the ability to maintain suppression of virus replication in seroconverters with a naturally low level of plasma HIV-1 RNA. No AIDS-defining events were observed at low plasma HIV-1-RNA levels, but a steady loss of CD4 T lymphocytes occurred, and long-term control of viraemia was extremely rare in the natural course of HIV-1 infection.