We sought to determine whether, in primary HIV-1 infection (PHI), these indicators of CD8 T cell exhaustion would correlate with surrogate markers of disease (e.g. HIV-1 plasma viral load (pVL), CD4 T cell count) and actual time to progression within a strictly defined patient population enrolled into a randomized clinical trial of early antiretroviral therapy (ART). This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and HIV-1 infection.