Glossary

meningitis – inflammation (-itis) of the meninges (part of fluid that surrounds the brain). Meningitis can be caused by different infections – ie bacterial meningitis (from bacterial infection), viral meningitis (form a virus) etc.

publication bias – the tendency for published results to be different to other trials. For example, trials that show a positive effect are more likely to be reported and published than trials that find no effect.

hepatitis – an infection that causes liver inflammation, usually a virus.

hepatic – relating to the liver, ie hepatitis = liver inflamation, hepatocyte = liver cell etc.

codon – the word for the junction on genetic material (DNA or RNA) occupied by three nucleotides (or bases) to form an amino acid. In HIV it is most used when refering to drug resistance. There is an amino acid at each codon and the codons are numbered (starting from 1) for each section of the HIV gene. For example the mutation M184V in RT refers to a mutation change at codon 184 in the reverse transcriptase gene.