Viral Load Testing in Resource-Limited Settings in Clinical of Infectious Diseases Journal

Author: Robert T. Schooley

The impact of antiretroviral therapy on HIV-associated morbidity and mortality where it has been available has been one of the most dramatic examples of the benefits that accrue from investment in the academic and industrial biomedical research enterprise.

The speed and success of this effort has been the result of a hypothesis-driven research effort that has closely linked clinical investigation with emerging information about the pathogenesis of the disease, using advancements on either front to drive the other.

The result has been that we probably know more about the relationships among the virus, the host, and the natural history of this infection than is the case in any other disease in medicine. Because of what we know about these relationships, there is much less room for speculation about the prognostic implications of certain therapeutic decisions in this disease than in many others.