Virological rebound in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with or without residual viraemia: results from an extended follow-up

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -infected patients with HIV RNA loads of < 50 copies/mL were followed-up for a median (interquartile range) of 30.8 (11.7-32.9) months to study the effect of residual viraemia (RV) on virological rebound (VR). At baseline, 446 (60.3%) patients had undetectable HIV RNA (group A) and 293 (39.7%) had RV (1-49 HIV RNA copies/mL, group B) by kinetic PCR. VR occurred in 4 (0.9%) patients in group A and in 12 (4.1%) patients in group B (p 0.007). Time to VR was shorter among patients of group B (Log-rank test: p 0.003). However, the proportion of VR was extremely low also among patients with RV.