About the Authors

Hugues Charest

hugues.charest@inspq.qc.ca

Affiliations Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada, Département de microbiologie, infectiologie et immunologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Florence Doualla-Bell

Affiliations Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada, Department of Medicine, Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Régis Cantin

Affiliation Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada

Donald G. Murphy

Affiliation Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada

Linda Lemieux

Affiliation Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada

Bluma Brenner

Affiliation McGill AIDS Center, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Isabelle Hardy

Affiliation Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), Montréal, Québec, Canada

Daniela Moisi

Affiliation McGill AIDS Center, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Ernest Lo

Affiliations Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Jean-Guy Baril

Affiliation Clinique du Quartier Latin, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Mark A. Wainberg

Affiliation McGill AIDS Center, Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Michel Roger

Affiliations Département de microbiologie, infectiologie et immunologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), Montréal, Québec, Canada

Cécile Tremblay

Affiliations Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec/Institut national de santé publique du Québec, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada, Département de microbiologie, infectiologie et immunologie, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), Montréal, Québec, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: JGB has served as an ad hoc advisor and has presented at various events sponsored by Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, ViiV Healthcare, Janssen, Merck Frosst and Gilead, and has received grants from these pharmaceutical companies. CT has served as an advisor and is a board member of Gilead, Merck and Tibotec, and has presented at various events sponsored by these pharmaceutical companies, in addition to Bristol-Myers Squibb and Abbott. JGB and CT are physicians treating HIV infected patients in their medical practice, and are active members of the provincial advisory committee mandated by the Ministry of Health for reviewing the clinical relevance of different molecular assays for the follow-up of individuals infected with HIV. Other authors (IT specialists and laboratory staff) have no interaction with patients. No pharmaceutical companies are mentioned in this manuscript. HC, FDB, LL, RC, DGM, IH, DM, BB, MR, EL, MAW have declared that no competing interests exist. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HC FDB CT. Performed the experiments: HC IH DM BB MR. Analyzed the data: LL RC HC DGM EL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HC RC LL EL. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: HC FDB MAW JGB CT.