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Abstract

Title: Viral levels in newborn African infants undergoing primary HIV-1 infection.
Author: Biggar RJ, Broadhead R, Janes M, Kumwenda N, Taha TE, Cassol S
Journal: AIDS 15(10):1311-1313
Year: 2001
Month: July

Abstract: We examined weekly changes in viral levels in seven untreated infants infected with HIV at birth. Viral levels spiked immediately but reverted quickly to plateau levels typical of infant HIV infection within 2 weeks of first detected viraemia. We speculated that the depletion of naive, susceptible cells is responsible for the rapid decrease in spike levels and that the rapid replacement of lymphocytes in infants causes the high plateau viral levels (10(5) copies/ml) to be sustained.