Quantitation of HIV-1gag DNA and RNA From Single Frozen Cell Pellets

The assessment of viral load in the blood, tissues, and bodily fluids of persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus is fundamental to defining the stage of disease (1 –3 ), the effect of antiviral treatments to abate disease (4 , 5 ), disease progression (6 –8 ), and propensity for the transmission of disease (9 ,10 ) as well. Now accepted as a surrogate for all of these features of HIV-1 disease, specific guidelines have been adopted for the use of viral load measures in the clinical management of the disease (11 ).