Viral Load

 

 

You need to know what is guiding your medical treatment. Viral Load is an important concept to grasp as a person living with HIV. I realize that it can be confusing to understand.

Viral Load refers to the amount of HIV in your blood. It may indicate how active a virus is in your body. A high Viral Load may mean a more active virus, and this is associated with greater damage to the immune system. A low Viral Load is associated with better long-term health outcomes. In summary, you want a low Viral Load.

The Viral Load is counted through a standard blood test. This should be a part of your routine lab work. You should have it counted at least once every four month. This is another reason why you need to stay in continual medical care.

The Viral Load count provides the number of HIV particles in the blood. This number typically refers to the number of virus copies in a milliliter of blood.

  • An undetectable viral load means fewer than 50 particles of the virus in a milliliter of blood. Undetectable does not mean that a person is cured. (There is currently no cure for HIV.) Rather, it indicates an extremely low amount of the virus.
  • A detectable but low Viral Load is generally fewer than 5,000 particles per milliliter of blood.
  • 5,000 through 100,000 particles of virus in a blood sample indicate a medium Viral Load. 
  • A high number (over 100,000 particles of virus in a blood sample) indicates a high Viral Load.                      

A person may experience an increase in the amount of virus in their blood (Viral Load) two to four weeks after HIV infection. Viral Load may be lowered by various medications used to treat HIV infection.  The amount of virus in an individual’s blood (viral load) can indicate the amount of damage that HIV may be doing to one’s immune system.  Changes in Viral Load must be monitored. A high Viral Load may lead to changes in the medicines you must be take.

Even if you have a high Viral Load, never lose hope. Mine has gone up and down and up again over the last six years that I have lived with HIV. I am at an all right level now, but it could get better and I am confident that it will. Many individuals with extremely high viral loads have been able to maintain safer levels of the virus by entering and keeping up with medical care.

There is one more thing I would like to mention. A lot of people believe that you cannot transmit HIV if you have an undetectable Viral Load. It’s a little more complicated than that. Generally, a high amount of HIV particles in one’s blood suggests that a person is more likely to transmit HIV. However, Viral Load does not reveal how many HIV particles are present in all of the bodily fluids that might transmit HIV. An individual with an undetectable Viral Load may still infect others with the virus.

Last updated on October 7, 2008