Glossary

TST – abbreviation for testosterone

haematology – study (-ology) of blood (haema-)

drug resistant mutation – a mutation or change that occurs in the HIV genome that reduces a drugs ability to work.

macrophage – large white blood cell that engulfs or ‘eats’ infectious organisms and waste material from dead cells.

elite controller (EC) – if your viral load stays undetectable for more than five years without ART you are an elite controller.

Elite controllers also have a very good CD4 count (always above 500 cells/mm³) that stays at a similar level over many years.

Even with this good immune response, ART is still generally recommended in the long-term.

This is because over decades – some ECs have been undetectable for more than 20 years – there is a concern that low level HIV in different body compartments like the brain, might lead to accumulative serious damage that isn’t easy to detect until it is too late.

This is a real concern, though evidence is limited because of the rarity of ECs.

See: long-term slow progressor (LTSP)/long-term non-progessor (LTNP).