Question
Has another viral load reading as high as this been seen?
8 June 2009. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load.
I was diagnosed 2 years ago, and had an extremely high viral load of 7.4 million copies. My viral load is now undetectable, and I am fit and healthy. I was wondering if another VL as high as this had been seen at all?
Answer
A very high viral load (VL) shortly after the infection is something quite normal. The VL dynamics is very well explained here.
This is not something to worry about, because your virus at the moment is well surpressed.
There is a French study that looked into the VL in early infection and that says that VL>5 million is fairly common. It is published here.
Hi Santosh,
Are you on HIV treatment (this is called ART)? The aim of ART is to get your viral load to undetectable levels in the blood.
A CD4 count tells you how strong your immune system is. People who are HIV negative can have a CD4 count between 460 and 1600. This is an average. Anywhere in this range is good.
Although generally a higher CD4 is good, an HIV negative person with a normal CD4 count of 1200 is not more healthy than someone whose normal count is 400. Taking ART can help your CD4 count recover if it is low.
But what does the doctor say about your results? Do you have access to ART? Please let us know.
My viral load is 44332 and cd4 is 437. Is this dangerous ?
Hi Lily,
Thanks for your question, but i-Base doesn’t have resources to answer questions on testing and transmission, please see here. But viral load tests are not approved for diagnosing HIV testing. Please see this Q&A.
Yes, HIV weakens the immune system. Please see this guide to HIV treatment, ART in Pictures.
Hi,
Please I need clarifications. A man in his early 50s ran several tests because he was feeling ill and the test result came out that he had a very high viral load but was HIV negative.
According to the specialist, he said the virus had been in him for years and manifests itself by weakening the immune system.
Please what does this mean?
Hi Zedda,
You’ve been taking meds since you were 9 years old. Do you have support from your family? And is there somebody you can talk to at the clinic about this? What is your viral load now Zedda, and where do you live?
I have been taking my medication since 2008
Along the years started not taking them everyday and now my viral load is too much i think i need help what can i do i am.19 years of age
Hi,
You have done right thing by starting treatment. The lower your viral load is when you give birth the less likely that HIV is transmitted to your child. THe aim of treatment when pregnant is to get and undetectable viral load. Your viral load was already low when it was 236 10 weeks ago. It usually falls quickly once someone has started treatment and it is likely that it has become undetectable. Because of this your baby has a good chance of being born negative.
Hi. I’m 34 weeks pregnant and i was diagnosed with HIV when i was about 24 weeks and started treatment immediately. My cd4 count was 518 and viral load 236 copies. What are the chances of my baby to be born negative? Please help because i can’t sleep when i think about this.
Perhaps, the important thing here is that there is a clear noticeable trend in CD4 decline, that should inform your decision to start treatment according to the guidelines. There are several studies that show that presenting VL is not necessarily indicative for the speed of fall of CD4 count in HIV-positive people who are not on treatment. Here is one of them, in case you want to read some more details: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/296/12/1498
Hi. I have emailed you before and found your responses to be quite helpful. I have a question about viral load and CD4 count. I am not on treatment and have not been ill. I am quite active and energetic.
My question is this. My viral load at its highest was 22,000, CD4 count-301 about a year ago when I began seeing a physician in May 2008, approximately 3 months after a positive test. Since then, it has fluctuated a bit. 6000 viral load, CD4-346 in August 2008; 20,000 viral load, CD4- 465 in November 2008; 12,000 viral load, CD4-350 in March 2009; 7000 viral load, CD4 236 in June 2009.
My doctor in accordance with treatment guidelines in the US and UK strongly recommends that I start treatment. I understand that this is what is recommended. My question is about whether or not you are familiar with many cases where individuals not in treatment with relatively low viral loads like mine have such rapid decreases in CD4 count?
My other blood work is excellent. My doctor says that these discordant results sometimes occur with HIV-2 or a weak HIV-1 virus, but according to genotyping I have the standard HIV-1 infection with limited mutations and no drug resistance.
We have also discussed that my body appears to do a good job of controlling viral load on its own, but I am curious if you have any opinion as to why my CD4 count has taken such a beating since November 2008, while my viral load has consistently decreased in that time period?
Thank you and I look forward to your response.