Question
What do my viral load test results mean?
5 January 2016. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load.
Please can you explain how viral load results mean?
I got my results back and I don’t understand them. It says log units is 2.777 and my RNA copies is 599 cp/mL.
Is this low or high? My CD4 count is 697.
Answer
Hi
Thanks for your question – and it is good that you want to understand your test results.
Sometimes this can be dfficult if your doctor has not explained them clearly. It is also okay to ask your doctor or nurse to explain anything that you are not sure of.
Viral loads tests tells you how much virus is in a millilitre of blood (or another body fluid being measured).
When not on treatment, viral load can range from undetectable to several millions. For anyone on HIV treatment (ART), viral load should ideally get to undetectable, This is defined as being less than 50 copies/mL.
Your test results are the 599 copies/mL, so your viral load is still detectable at 599.
The ‘2.777 log units’ from your test results is a slightly complicated way of saying exactly the same thing as ‘599 copies/mL’.
Because viral loads have such a huge range of numbers they are sometimes expressed in ‘log units’ to make it easier to write them on graphs and diagrams. Doctors and scientists use log scales to look at changes to viral loads over time. See this table of log units compared to viral loads in copies/mL.
Whether this is considered high or low depends on whether or not you are on treatment.
- If you’re not on treatment yet this is a relatively low viral load, which is a good thing.
- If you are on treatment, then if you only recently started ART, your viral load might still be going down.
- If you have been on treatment for more than six month, please talk to your doctor about why the results in not undetectable.
For more information about viral loads and how they relate to both treatment and infectiousness you can also have a look at the following links:
Viral Load and Treatment
Viral Load and Infectiousness
If you tell me if you are currently on treatment or not I can provide more individual information, Also, if you are on treatment, when did you start?
This answer was updated in January 2016 from a question first posted on 5 April 2012.
Hi Thokozile,
If your viral load is given in log values this would be, 0.5 Log10. That’s the same as 3 copies/mL. Please check with the doctor if this is a log value or if there’s a mistake in the way it’s written.
You can see the Log value tables here.
my viral load is 0.500 mlindo so can you please tell me if it’s low or high??
Hi Julilet,
Do you mean your viral load is undetectable? If so, it’s great news. That’s because Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U).
U=U means that someone with an undetectable HIV viral load on HIV treatment (ART) cannot transmit HIV, even without using condoms. So the risk of transmission is zero.
For more info please see this link to U=U.
I’m on ART since 2012 my boyfriend is refusing to use condoms and my viral load is lower than applicable will I infect him his negative
Hi Salem,
I’m sorry but we are not doctors at i-Base. So we cannot propose treatment unfortunately.
Are these your results Salem? I-Base gives HIV treatment information to HIV positive people and their friends and family.
But do people have access to HIV treatment (ART) in Yemen? Is it possible to contact Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF)?
. A 45-year-old HIV positive businessman in Sanaa has persistent diarrhoea and emaciation / weight loss. Coproculture and testing for intestinal parasites are negative. Trial therapy with metronidazole and ampicillin brought no improvement. There is no tuberculosis. The CD4 cell count is 200/mm3. The viral load amounts to 110,000 copies/ml plasma. Which treatment could you propose?
Hi Tumi.
Unless a person has an undetectable viral load is there is risk of transmission. Please see here: http://i-base.info/u-equals-u/
Good day.
Just wanted to know, when is hiv more transmittable based on viral load.
Hi Linet,
Your viral load is undetectable. This means that your HIV is under control. Having an undetectable viral load drastically reduces the risk of transmission to child. There’s more about this here: http://i-base.info/guides/pregnancy
Hi, I am Linet. I have been into medication for the last 10 years, recently I had my viral test and my results indicated 50 copies/mL What does that mean….am i ready to have babies considering my test results.