To effectively monitor the progression of HIV in a patient and determine the efficacy of antiretroviral therapy (ART), clinicians must measure the patient's viral load. Which of the following methods is the most appropriate and sensitive technique to directly quantify viral load in the blood?
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to detect and quantify host anti-HIV antibodies
Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) to amplify and measure viral genomic nucleic acids
Optical light microscopy of a Gram-stained blood smear to count viral particles
Disc diffusion antibiotic sensitivity testing to determine pathogen susceptibility
181 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Biology 6.3 Monitoring and maintaining health, covering 6.3.1 Health and disease, 6.3.2 Interactions between diseases, 6.3.3 Spread of communicable diseases, 6.3.4 Common infections and diseases, 6.3.5 Physical plant defence responses, 6.3.6 Chemical plant defence responses, 6.3.7 Detecting and identifying plant diseases, 6.3.8 White blood cells and platelets, 6.3.9 Non-specific defence systems, 6.3.10 The immune system, 6.3.11 Monoclonal antibodies, 6.3.12 Vaccines and medicines, 6.3.13 Aseptic techniques, 6.3.14 Discovery and development of new medicines, 6.3.15 Causes of non-communicable diseases, 6.3.16 Treatments for cardiovascular disease, 6.3.17 Lifestyle factors and non-communicable diseases, 6.3.18 Cancer, 6.3.19 Stem cells in medicine, 6.3.20 Gene technology in medicine, and 6.3.21 The human genome and medicine. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.