{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T14:28:25Z","timestamp":1754144905884,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,16]],"date-time":"2025-07-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752624000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Community viral load (CVL) is defined as an aggregate measure of individual viral loads of people living with HIV who are receiving care in a specific community. It serves as a metric to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy programs. Our study aimed to analyze the overtime trend and the distribution characteristics of viral load.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>Using the Lorenz curve, we investigated the demographic characteristics of individuals who comprised the top 10% of viral loads over the years. We applied the Gini index to measure the inequality in the distribution of viral load among the study population.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our data showed a progressive decrease in community viral load over the years, with a sharp decline after 2012 and a rebound in 2020. The Gini index had a specular trend during this period. In all the observed periods, the top 10% of viral loads showed a progressive increase in the proportion of female individuals and non-Italian nationals.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our study highlighted the effectiveness and the improvement of the HIV care cascade over the years, with a decrease in community HIV viral load. The introduction of integrase inhibitors seemed to cause a rapid drop in community viral load in 2012 but with a notable discrepancy in the homogeneity of the population. It is also important to highlight the changes over time in the population representing the top 10% of viral loads, with a gradual but stable increase in the proportion of female and non-Italian individuals.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1580633","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,16]],"date-time":"2025-07-16T05:38:17Z","timestamp":1752644297000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Use of the Lorenz curve and the Gini index for the evaluation of HIV viral load distribution in an Italian community"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Stefania","family":"Arsuffi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Martina","family":"Salvi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Stefano","family":"Calza","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fabio Riccardo","family":"Colombo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Alberti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Benedetta","family":"Fioretti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Giorgio","family":"Tiecco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Emanuele","family":"Foc\u00e0","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eugenia","family":"Quiros-Roldan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e11068","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0011068","article-title":"Decreases in 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