The Lorenz curve: a novel method for understanding viral... : AIDS (original) (raw)

Research Letters

a novel method for understanding viral load distribution at the population level

Christopoulos, Katerina A.; Hartogensis, Wendy; Glidden, David V.; Pilcher, Christopher D.; Gandhi, Monica; Geng, Elvin H.

aDivision of HIV, ID, and Global Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General

bDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.

Correspondence to Katerina A. Christopoulos, Division of HIV, ID, and Global Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General, University of California San Francisco, 995 Potrero Avenue, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. Tel: +1 415 476 4082; fax: +1 415 476 6953; e-mail: [email protected]

Received 8 June, 2016

Revised 21 October, 2016

Accepted 1 November, 2016

Abstract

Existing HIV care cascade metrics fail to capture whether viremia is equally distributed in a population or concentrated within groups. We applied the Lorenz curve, which has been used to describe disparities in the distribution of income and other resources, to the distribution of viremia in a safety-net HIV clinic in 2012. Among 1855 established clinic patients, 1% of the population held 50% of the virus and 10% of the population held 94% of virus.