Strenuous resistance to natural HIV-1 disease progression: Viral controllers and long-term nonprogressors

HIV-1 infection leads to AIDS and death within 8-10 years for most individuals in the absence of antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, a minority of infected individuals show the unusual capacity to spontaneously control disease progression after infection in the absence of any ART. So-called 'long-term nonprogressors' are defined by maintenance of peripheral CD4 ⁺ T-cell counts >500 cells/μl and good health without ART for >7 years since infection. More recently, ART-naive individuals who spontaneously control their viremia levels at either