Glossary

ribavirin – drug used to boost the efficacy of pegylated interferon to treat hepatitis C. Given as twice-daily capsules.

surrogate marker – A surrogate marker is when something that is easy to measure is used as a marker for something that is difficult to measure directly.

The CD4 count doesn’t directly measure HIV. But it is a good surrogate (or indirect) marker for how HIV has damaged your immune system. It is closely linked to the risk of HIV-related complications.

Viral load in blood is a good surrogate marker for levels of HIV in your body overall including in other body sites.

intrapartum refers to the last stages of during pregnancy when the baby is born. These are labour and delivery (or chold birth). Intrapartum can refer to both the baby and the mother.

See: antepartum and postpartum.

compensatory mutation – this refer to an additional mutation, usually in the context of the fitness of a virus. For example, the mutations that stop a drug form working often stop the virus from reproducing as well. Additional mutations that return the virus to it’s former fitness are called compensatory mutations. They compensate for the reduced viral fitness. See revertant mutation.

benign – not harmful.