Question
Should my husband have a viral rebound to 5000 retested?
15 July 2011. Related: All topics, CD4 and viral load, Changing treatment, Resistance.
Hi
My husabnd has been on ARVs for almost five years.
Recently he went for a routine check up where they take some blood samples to monitor his viral load and CD4 count. The results came out indicating that his CD4 count has dropped from 1200 to 860 while his viral load has risen from 56 to 5000.
Do we need to be worried? Is there a need for confirmation blood tests.
Please help
Answer
Hi
Any rebound in viral load than goes higher than 200, and certainly higher than 2000, need to be checked straight away.
If your husband was treated in the UK, he would have a new blood sample drawn on the same days as the result came back at 5000. This would be to confirm the viral load result. He would also have this tested for drug resistance.
This link takes you through an important summary of points. See also the Guide to Changing Treatment at this link.
Has your husbands been okay with his adherence? If he has not missed any doses and also followed any dietary recommendations (with/without food etc) then he may have developed resistance.
Without information about your husbands drugs it is difficult to comment on the likely resistance.
If your husband had missed some of his meds, then he may be lucky and this may have gone down again now, but 5000 is pretty high to be a blip.
This recent question discusses a similar situation.
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