CD4 and AIDS: HIV-infected people even with long-term, effective antiretroviral therapy have persistent, low grade inflammation and immune activation [6, 7], and elevated levels of inflammation biomarkers (eg. IL-6, TNF, D-dimer, fibrinogen and C-reactive protein) have been shown to be strong predictors of non-AIDS events and all-cause mortality, when also controlling for CD4 count and HIV plasma replication [7–11].