Correlation of Human Immunode®ciency Virus Type 1 RNA Levels in Blood and the Female Genital Tract

In this study, the correlations of human immunode®ciency virus type 1 (HIV-1) RNA levels in blood plasma, vaginal secretions, and cervical mucus of 52 HIV-1±infected women were determined. The amount of cell-free HIV-1 RNA in blood plasma was correlated with that in vaginal secretions (Spearman's rank correlation coef®cient,). In both(r) 5 0.64 P!.001 blood plasma and vaginal secretions, the amounts of cell-free and cell-associated HIV-1 RNA were highly correlated ( , and, , respectively). Cell-free HIV-1r 5 0.76 P!.01 r 5 0.85 P!.01 RNA levels in blood plasma and vaginal secretions were negatively correlated with CD4+ T lymphocyte count ( , and, , respectively). Similar to the effectr 5 20.44 P!.01 r 5 20.40 P!.01 observed in blood plasma, initiation of antiretroviral therapy signi®cantly reduced the amount of HIV-1 RNA in vaginal secretions. These ®ndings suggest that factors that lower blood plasma virus load may also reduce the risk of perinatal and female-to-male heterosexual transmission by lowering vaginal virus load. Worldwide, most human immunode®ciency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections in adults have been transmitted sexually through exposure to infected seminal ¯uid and cervicovagina