Glossary

primary HIV infection (PHI) – early infection (usually first six months with after HIV infection). Sometimes called acute infection.

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

clinical cut-off (CCO) – a test result that is associated with an impact on clinical care. With resistance tests a lower CCO is the level below which a drug is still sensitive or active. This is often set at a 20% loss of activity (compared to wild-type HIV). An upper CCO is the level above which the drug is not considered active (ie resistant). This is often set at an 80% loss of activity (compared to wild-type HIV).

fold-change – a term relating to drug resistance after a phenotype resistance test.

4-fold resistance (also called a 4-fold loss in sensitivity) means you need to use four times the dose to get the same reduction in viral load.

reverse transcriptase – an enzyme unique to HIV. It is used to convert single-strand RNA into double-strand DNA. This is needed before HIV’s genetic material can be integrated in the human DNA. HIV drugs that stop this process are called reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTIs).