Defined by virologic parameters, they are called the HIV controllers,

With the advent of viral load assays in clinical care, new groups of patients with slow disease progression joined the patients known as long-term nonprogressors. Defined by virologic parameters, they are called the HIV controllers, some of whom are elite controllers. Although the definitions of these various groups vary in the literature and there is some overlap, they are of intense interest because the mechanisms by which they have some natural protection against HIV may provide insights for the development of preventive and therapeutic vaccines. Both viral factors and host genetic factors, such as HLA-B27 and HLA-B57, may play a role. This study of more than 110,000 patients confirms the very low prevalence (less than 0.5%) of these valuable patients. Some are viraemic with high CD4 counts while others control viraemia but have CD4 depletion and yet others appear to have both viral control and stable CD4 cell counts.