Analysis of HIV-1 viral load in seminal plasma samples

Abstract

Background: With HIV-1-infected individuals now facing the prospect of relatively long and healthy lives, many discordant couples (where the male is HIV-1 seropositive) are seeking to have children. To assist reducing the risks of heterosexual and subsequent vertical transmission in this situation, quantification of HIV-1 viral load in seminal plasma may be effective as one of several measures to reduce the risk of infecting the mother during insemination, potentially providing a better indication of infectivity than blood plasma analysis. Objective(s): To modify existing molecular methods for the purpose of analysing HIV-1 viral load in seminal plasma. Methods: Two commercial assays for HIV..