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 Porches,
HIV treatment aims to get viral load to undetectable. This is good for your health. And it also means that HIV can’t be transmitted if you have sex without using condoms. There isn’t a cure for HIV at the moment, but having an undetectable viral load can stop HIV from damaging your immune system. So you can be infected but your viral load can be undetectable.
Why I’m infected but my overlord counting zero?
Hi Violet,
Do you know what your sons CD4 count as well as his viral load? Has he started treatment yet? If he has other than the ARVs, has he been given anything else?
Hi my son is on treatment but the doctors say his virul load is not good. How can i help her.he just find out tht hes postive still dealing with status.
Hi Gilly,
Has your viral load gone below 50? If it has, have you ever had a viral rebound before this one? Are you taking your meds are prescribed?
Ideally you should have this tested again as it may just be a blip.
I started treatment in march 2011, in july 2017 my viral load is 124. What does this mean
Hi Jade,
Viral load tests tell you how much HIV is in a sample of blood. But because these numbers can be quite big or small, they are converted to log numbers because they are easier to use by doctors. Here’s a table of these logs.
But are you on HIV treatment (ART)? The aim of ART is to reduce viral load to less that 50. And that means being undetecable. You can talk to the clinic about ART to help reduce viral load.
good day , please can you help me understand what the below means.
my report said:
HIV Viral Load 29600 copies/ml
Log conversion 4.47 Log/copies
input volume 0.500ml
Hi Elizabeth, when you are on treatment your viral load is supposed to be very low. Getting to below 20 is a really good sign. It means the drugs are working well,
I found out that I was HIV positive when I was pregnant, my doctor put me on medication right away, am still on medication the last time I went for my blood results my viral load was 20, how do I explain that.