HIV-1 low-level viraemia predicts virological failure in first-line and second-line ART-experienced individuals in India: A retrospective longitudinal study.

Objective: To study the prevalence of low-level viraemia (LLV) and its association with virological failure (VF).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 3498 participants at YRG CARE, Chennai, India (2013-2018) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for ≥6 months with two or more plasma viral load (pVL) measurements. Results were stratified for those with pVL <1000 copies/mL: fully suppressed (FS) (pVL <40), low-LLV (pVL 40-199), mid-LLV (pVL 200-399), and high-LLV (pVL 400-999).