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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2007 Oct 29.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Microbiol. 2006 Oct 9;4(11):865–873. doi: 10.1038/nrmicro1532

Figure 3. The viral load set point.

Figure 3

a | Soon after infection, HIV replicates to high levels (peak viraemia). Host factors then exert their effects to limit viral replication to a post-acute set-point level of plasma viraemia. b | The dynamics of establishment of the viral load set point in an individual presenting with HIV primary infection are shown. c | Viraemia data from three individuals are shown, characterized by post-acute viral load set points at 5, 3 and <2 log10 HIV-1 RNA copies per millilitre — fully stable over 3 years. Without these reliable patterns of inter-individual variation, genetics would have little to contribute to the analysis of viral load set point.