aDepartment of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;

bNational Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), National Priority Programme (NPP), Johannesburg, South Africa; and

cEzintsha, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Correspondence to: Naseem Cassim, MPH, PhD, Department of Molecular Medicine and Haematology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, 7 York Road, Parktown, Johannesburg 2193, South Africa (e-mail: [email protected]).

Some of these findings were presented at the Interest 2022 conference (Kampala, Uganda).

The authors have no funding or conflicts of interest to disclose.

The authors do not have permission to share the HIV viral load data.

The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and not those of the University of the Witwatersrand or the National Health Laboratory Service.

W.S. Stevens and L. Hans supervised the study. N. Cassim developed the methodology, analyzed data and prepared the first draft of the manuscript. L. Hans, P. Da Silva, S. Sarang, S.N., and W.D.F. Venter provided editorial comments and technical input. All authors contributed to the manuscript.