At the time of median diagnosis, CD4 cell count was higher in individuals with a recent infection compared to those with a long-standing infection (480 [interquartile range, IQR: 366–655] cell/mm3 vs 330 [IQR: 146–484] cell/mm3, P < 0.001, data not shown) while median viremia was not significantly different in the two groups of patients (4.8 [IQR: 4.0–5.4] log10 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml vs 4.9 [IQR: 4.4–5.4] log10 HIV-1 RNA copies/ml, P = 0.09). Here, CD4 is linked to infection.