CD8A and HIV infectious disease: VL did not increase significantly over time in children with pLLVL or rebound; rather, it appeared that viraemia reached an equilibrium (approximately 1,000 and approximately 40,000 copies/ml, respectively), similar to the set-point that is characteristic of untreated HIV infection [19], perhaps due to the capacity for HIV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses to control viral replication on suboptimal ART [20], before potentially changing again to a new equilibrium in the rebound state, driven by further loss of adherence or by immune escape from previously effective T-cell responses [21].