Question
What do these viral load differences mean?
8 July 2010. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load.
Hello,
I’m a 30 year-old male not yet on therapy and I have a question regarding my viral load. The monitoring on my CD4 and viral load is being done monthly and VL was Feb: ~18,000 Mar: ~20,000 Apr: 23,000 May: 17,000.
Is it possible for the viral load to decrease or is it more likely a lab error? If it’s possible to decrease the viral load, is there an explanation about it?
I haven’t spoken to my doctor yet but I asked the secretary for the lab results. Meanwhile I would like to know if you have some insights to me. Thank you very much.
Answer
None of these three results are considered different. Technically they are all the same because they are within a three-fold margin of error for this type of tests.
This means each results could actually be between about 6,000 and 60,000. However, as they are all around 20,000, this is likely to be close to the actual level.
Everyone experiences fluctuations in viral load from day-to-day and within each day. However, it is not possible to permanently decrease your viral load without treatment.
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