Glossary

postpartum refers to the time after a baby is born. Postpartum refers to the mother.

See: antepartum and intrapartum.

undetectable – an amount smaller than a test can measure. For viral load tests, this means below 400 or, more commonly, below 50 copies/mL, depending on the make of test. In research laboratories, some very sensitive tests can measure down to 1 copy/mL.

lipoatrophy – fat loss in your arms, legs or face. Lipoatrophy is a type of lipodystrophy.

neonate – a baby that is 0 to 28 days old.

genotype (or genotypic) – This term has several common uses:

1. a general term for the molecular structure of a living organism or virus.

2. a test that looks at the structure of an organism of virus (ie genotype resistance test looks for changes in the virus structure – called mutations).

3. a category for different types of similar viruses – ie hepatitis C has many subtypes, referred to as genotype-1, genotype-2 etc. HCV genotype is the strongest predictor of response to hepatitis C treatment.

See also phenotype.