These results contrast with an earlier study from Cote d’Ivoire that reported more than half of the participants declaring sexual abstinence and those who were sexually active having a CB-839 nmr low frequency

of sexual intercourse (once a month or less) [30]. A major finding of the current study is that South Indian patients with higher viral loads were more likely to transmit HIV to their seronegative partners, and during the 12 months of follow-up, patients in seroconverting relationships continued to have significantly higher viral loads than patients in serodiscordant relationships. Although studies from other regions have documented that PVL is a marker for HIV transmission [10–12,14], the findings of the current study differ from an earlier study from Zambia in which PVL was only weakly predictive of male-to-female transmission within couples and rates of male-to-female and female-to-male transmission were similar [16]. In an earlier study at our centre, men with PVLs >100 000 were more likely to be in concordant relationships [31]. Although the

most important justification for expanding access to ART in resource-limited settings has been to prolong the life of HIV-infected patients, a secondary outcome could also be a reduction in the risk of HIV transmission because AZD6244 in vitro ART dramatically suppresses peripheral blood levels of HIV-1 RNA [32]. The incidence of HIV infection among the initially seronegative partners was 6.52 per 100 person-years. An earlier study from Western India documented a lower incidence rate of seroconversion (1.22 per 100 person-years) among serodiscordant couples, which was attributed to high rates of condom use, low rates of STIs and high CD4 T lymphocyte counts [21]. However, a study from Zambia documented a similar transmission rate between couples (7.7 per 100 person-years) [16]. The Rakai study reported an even higher incidence of 11.8 AZD9291 order per 100

person-years [9]. These varying incidences of HIV transmission in different settings are likely to reflect different numbers of partners, varying duration of relationships, availability of ART, coital frequency, availability of clinical care and the structures of various sexual networks [33]. Herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2) co-infection has been identified as a key risk factor for the heterosexual transmission of HIV [13,34], and HSV-2 infection reactivation in HIV-infected individuals can lead to a rise in HIV viral load and increased rates of HIV seroconversion [8,35]. In the current study, a substantial number of patients presented with genital HSV-2 at enrolment and patients in relationships that seroconverted between 6 and 12 months of follow-up had a higher period prevalence of genital HSV-2. Acyclovir suppressive therapy can suppress genital and plasma HIV RNA levels [36], and could be used as prophylactic therapy in populations with high HSV-2 burdens to reduce the transmission of HIV.