Results:  In the PRIMO cohort, despite similar time since infection, HLA‐B*35 individuals (B35, n = 64) had lower CD4+ T‐cell counts (median 398 cells/mm3, p = 0.04) and higher HIV‐DNA level (median 3.53 log10 HIV‐DNA copies/million PBMC, p = 0.046) than HLA‐B*27/57 (B27/57, n = 21, 543 cells/mm3 and 2.88 log10 HIV‐DNA copies) individuals or those carrying other HLAs (others, n = 160, 481 cells/mm3 and 3.44 log10 HIV‐DNA copies) at the time of treatment initiation. The gene discussed is HLA-B; the disease is infection.