Question
What is an undetectable viral load?
27 March 2012. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load.
What is an undetectable viral load? I had thought it was less than 50 but when I got my results today mine was 42 (down from 82 last time). Can labs measure almost any level of virus these days?
Answer
An undetectable viral load means that the level of HIV in your blood is below the threshold needed for detection by this test.
A viral load test is a measurement of the amount of HIV in your body. The measurement is given in the number of copies in milliliter (copies/mL).
If you are on treatment, then your viral load should go down to undetectable level (less than 50 copies/mL). Once your viral load goes down, then slowly your CD4 count will increase, although not to the level before infection.
Since your viral load has reduced from 82 to 42, this is a good indication that your treatment is working for you. It is also possible for your viral load can go down further too.
Viral load technology has progressed during the last 30 years of HIV history. The tests have been greatly improved and tests used for research are even more sensitive – down to 5 or even 1 copy/mL.
All hospitals in the UK now routinely use viral load tests that measure down to 20, 40 or 50 copies/mL.
Hi Beth, it sounds like waiting until Friday is the best thing. It might be a very good result if the doctor means that viral laod is undetectable. Without more information it is difficult to comment. Please contact us after Friday if this is still helpful.
My sister went to doctor today and she was told there was no viral count at all. Doctor told her to come for another test Friday and bring her medicine . Does this mean she was wrongly diagnosed or medicine work good?
Hi Sizwe, Please talk to your doctor to explain these results. I do not have this expertise but it looks like the test was accurate is saying that you either have or have had TB – the test can’t tell which of these though or whether the infection is active. Because your doctor prescribed isoniazid this sounds like a protective treatment so that TB doesn’t reactivate. If the doctor thought you had active TB you would have been given additional TB drugs. Please ask your health workers to talk about this. This weblink has some details but the language is quite technical.
http://education.questdiagnostics.com/faq/QFT
HI, I have recently done Quantiferon TB Gold and my results were ** Positive – what does it mean?
Quantiferon TB Nil 0.07 IU/mL
Quantiferon TB AG >10.00 IU/mL
Quantiferon TB Mitogen 1.08 IU/mL
How do you interprets this results?
My doctor prescribed Isoniazid 300 mg day
Hi Jose, are you sure this is your viral load and not your CD4 count? If it is your viral load, then this is very low to start with, so you will have become be undetectable very quickly, and would be undetectable if you tested now.
I am HIV positive and just started treatment a little over a month ago. My initial VL is 354 cps/mL. Is this as high as it can be?
Hi Johnpaul – if you have symptoms then your doctor may be doing this for a reason. Or he may have taken blood for the CD4 and it waiting for the result. If you were just diagnosed you need to ask whether the test result was confirmed in a lab. Please ask all these questions. As a patient you have the right to have these questions answered. Also, which country are you in?
My dr has not discused anything with me,and starts to put me on HIV treatment,and yet he has not tested my CD4 count and viral load what step should i take?
Hi Anu
This link has more info about CD4 and viral load:
http://i-base.info/guides/starting/two-essential-blood-tests
A count of under 350 is a very good reason to start treatment – all guidelines agree on this.
The 10 copies/mL is likely to relate to a different way that viral load test are sometimes given. This uses a “log” scale. A viral load of 10,000 c/mL is sometimes written as 4.0 x log(10) c/mL:
http://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/viral-load-converting-log-values-to-numbers
http://i-base.info/qa/factsheets/viral-load-converting-log-values-to-numbers
I am a hiv 1 positive patient.my cd4 count is 302 & viral load is 8734 copies/ml. what does it mean. 10 copies/ml is mentioned in result copy. what is this?