Basic and clinical immunology – 3013. Resource limited estimation of HIV-1 viral load from CD4 cell count using coupled bacterial foraging/jumping frogs algorithm

Background Viral load (VL) testing is highly important for detection of antiretroviral treatment (ART) failure in AIDS patients. However, due to the cost and availability of viral load testing instruments, VL testing is not being performed in many developing and underdeveloped countries. Such countries depend on CD4 tests for staging the HIV infection and for initiating ART, since CD4 testing is simple and less expensive. The objective of this work is to estimate the HIV-1 viral load from CD4 cell count using an hybrid artificial intelligence technique known as the coupled bacterial foraging/jumping frogs optimization algorithm and the three dimensional mathematical model of HIV infection.