The finding that activating KIR is linked to higher viral loads is in keeping with other studies which have linked activating KIR to virus related cancers [20,21] and to persistent viraemia in HCV [22], although telomeric B haplotypes are associated with slow progression of chronic hepatitis C infection in American Aboriginals [32,33]. Here, KIR3DL1 is linked to chronic hepatitis C virus infection.