{"id":1535,"date":"2010-03-29T15:23:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T15:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/?page_id=1535"},"modified":"2025-08-06T11:13:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T11:13:48","slug":"viral-load-converting-log-values-to-numbers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/factsheets\/viral-load-converting-log-values-to-numbers","title":{"rendered":"Viral load – converting log values to numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The range of viral load is so wide that results are often given as results from a logarithmic (log) scale.<\/p>\n

This is an easier way to deal with very large and very small numbers at the same time. Less than 50 copies\/mL for most people on treatment is 1.7 logs. In very early infection, a viral load of 10 million copies is 7.0 logs.<\/p>\n

Log value is a measurement used to describe HIV and expresses the viral load values as a power of ten (written log10). The scale is used because large changes can only be captured on graphs or diagrams by using a log scale. This turns large numbers of copies\/mL into \u2018manageable\u2019 figures.<\/p>\n

Table: HIV RNA viral load log value\u2013number conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
0.1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.2<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.3<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.4<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.5<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.6<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.7<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.8<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.9<\/td>\n8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.0<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1.1<\/td>\n13<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.2<\/td>\n16<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.3<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.4<\/td>\n25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.5<\/td>\n32<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.6<\/td>\n40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.7<\/td>\n50<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.8<\/td>\n63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.9<\/td>\n79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.0<\/td>\n100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
2.1<\/td>\n126<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.2<\/td>\n158<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.3<\/td>\n200<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.4<\/td>\n251<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.5<\/td>\n316<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.6<\/td>\n398<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.7<\/td>\n501<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.8<\/td>\n632<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.9<\/td>\n794<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.0<\/td>\n1,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
3.1<\/td>\n1,259<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.2<\/td>\n1,585<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.3<\/td>\n1,995<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.4<\/td>\n2,512<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.5<\/td>\n3,162<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.6<\/td>\n3,981<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.7<\/td>\n5,012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.8<\/td>\n6,310<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.9<\/td>\n7,943<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.0<\/td>\n10,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
4.1<\/td>\n12,589<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.2<\/td>\n15,849<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.3<\/td>\n19,953<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.4<\/td>\n25,119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.5<\/td>\n31,623<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.6<\/td>\n39,811<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.7<\/td>\n50,119<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.8<\/td>\n63,096<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.9<\/td>\n79,433<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.0<\/td>\n100,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Log10<\/sub><\/th>\ncopies\/mL<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
5.1<\/td>\n125,893<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.2<\/td>\n158,489<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.3<\/td>\n199,526<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.4<\/td>\n251,189<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.5<\/td>\n316,228<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.6<\/td>\n398,107<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.7<\/td>\n501,187<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.8<\/td>\n630,957<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.9<\/td>\n794,328<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6.0<\/td>\n1,000,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Source: \u00a0Learning resources<\/a> in Treatment Training for Advocates<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The range of viral load is so wide that results are often given as results from a logarithmic (log) scale. This is an easier way to deal with very large and very small numbers at the same time. Less than …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":7201,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1535","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26189,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1535\/revisions\/26189"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/qa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}