Issues such as whether antiretroviral treatment for HIV infection initiated promptly at diagnosis regardless of CD4 count and taken with adherence for decades translates to overall improved mortality, or whether competing increases in cardiovascular or other forms of mortality, associated or not associated with long-term ART use, may emerge, are open questions and would be missed by continuum analyses that stop at an outcome of viral suppression. The gene discussed is CD4; the disease is HIV infectious disease.