About the Authors

Kathryn L. Hopkins

hopkinsk@PHRU.co.za

Affiliation Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Fatima Laher

Affiliation Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Kennedy Otwombe

Affiliation Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Gavin Churchyard

Affiliation Aurum Institute for Health Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Linda-Gail Bekker

Affiliation Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Stephen DeRosa

Affiliation HIV Vaccine Trials Network, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Maphoshane Nchabeleng

Affiliation Medunsa HIV Clinical Research Unit, University of Limpopo, Pretoria, South Africa

Koleka Mlisana

Affiliation Centre for AIDS Programme for Research in South Africa & Department of Medical Microbiology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

James Kublin

Affiliation HIV Vaccine Trials Network, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington, United States of America

Glenda Gray

Affiliation Perinatal HIV Research Unit, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Competing Interests

The pharmaceutical company, Merck and Co Inc., sponsored the study products for the HVTN 503/Phambili clinical trial. There are no competing interests to declare, and these study products have not been marketed. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KH FL GG. Performed the experiments: GC LGB SD MN KM JK GG. Analyzed the data: KO SD. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KO SD. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: KH FL KO SD GG. Performed the literature search: KH. Interpretation of data: KH KO SD. Creating of figures and tables: KH KO. Wrote the paper: KH.