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HIV Viral Load | Open Access Journals
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Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

ISSN: 2155-6113

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HIV Viral Load

Viral load is the word used to describe the amount of HIV in your blood. The more HIV in your blood (and therefore the higher your viral load), the faster the CD4 count will drop and the higher the risk of getting sick from HIV.

If there is so little HIV in your blood that your viral load is "undetectable", then there is no risk of HIV transmission, even if condoms are not used.

Viral load tests measure the quantity of HIV genetic matter in a blood sample. The effect of a viral load test are described by the number of copies of HIV RNA in a milliliter of blood. But your doctor will normally talk about your viral load as a number. For example, a viral load of 10,000 would be considered as low level; 100,000 would be considered as high level. Viral load changes can be very big, so they are sometimes amounted by using the powers of ten, or "logarithmic scale". A change of 1 log is identical to a change of 10 times (therefore 5000 to 50,000 or vice versa); a change of 2 newspapers is a change of 100 times and is written 102.

You should have your viral load count when you are first diagnosed with HIV. If it is known that you have very recently become HIV positive (a period known as primary infection), you will have it measured three to six months later to determine your viral load "set point" - the level of your viral load once it stabilizes when the primary infection period is over.

Your viral load will be checked at least once a year, and more often if you have symptoms. Your viral load can provide important information about how HIV could affect your health if left untreated. Among people with the same number of CD4 cells, those with a high viral load tend to lose CD4 cells and get sick faster.

Your viral load also provides information about the risk of HIV transmission during sex without a condom. The higher the viral load, the greater the chance of contracting the HIV virus.

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