Question
I am pregnant and my viral load is not suppressed, what are my options?
22 October 2014. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load, Pregnancy.
I am three months pregnant and my viral load is not suppressed despite me being on ARVs. My CD4 is high – over 700 and is increasing , what can be the cause and what options do I have?
Answer
Hi,
Congratulations on your pregnancy!
There is no need for other options because so long as you are not missing doses or getting side effects, everything is going well. It is great that your CD4 count is so high and still increasing, this is what it is supposed to be doing. CD4 is used to measure how well your immune system is doing.
How long have you been on ARVs? You still have roughly 6 months for your viral load to become undetectable. The aim of this is to help prevent you child becoming positive.
You can find moreinformation about CD4 and viral load on our website.
And general information about HIV and pregnancy in our guide.
Hi Charlene,
From your results it’s clear that your current medication isn’t working. You’re going to need to change. Please see here: https://i-base.info/guides/changing This is a discussion that you’ll need to have with your doctor. Due to you being pregnant, it’s important that you change ARVs as soon as you can. There’s still time to become undetectable, you just need to be on the right combination.
Is it safe for me to change to second line regime whilst at 21 pregnant because my VL does not seem to go down. Last month it was 45000 and the previous it was 37124
Hi Ayanda,
Firstly, congratulations on the news that you’re going to have a baby.
Sometimes having another infection can increase your viral load. But what did your doctor say when they switched you to second line meds? However, it sounds like a good idea to change to second line meds. That’s because the aim of your treatment is to get viral load to undetectable by the time your baby is due. And the second line meds might be better at this.
But please discuss this with your doctor. Can you discuss your partner’s treatment with them too? Please let us know how you get on.
You can find lots of info in this guide to HIV pregnancy and women’s health.
Hi my name is ayanda im 28 weeks pregnant, i was diagnosed in june and started meds ( tribuss) viral load was 63 000 copies and in september there was a decrease to 200 copies. I became happy but i then had a chest infection flue like and then the viral load apon being checked it was 1000+ copies when the result came back today . My doctor changed me to second line regime , could it be because my partner and I sometimes we dont use condoms and his virus is still dectectable or could it be because my immune became weak that my viral load gone up?