WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?

WHAT DO THE NUMBERS MEAN?

There are no “magic” numbers for viral loads. We don’t know how long you’ll stay healthy with any particular viral load. All we know so far is that lower is better and seems to mean a longer, healthier life.

US treatment guidelines (See Fact Sheet 404) suggest that anyone with a viral load over 100,000 should be offered treatment.

Some people may think that if their viral load is undetectable, they can’t pass the HIV virus to another person. This is not true. There is no “safe” level of viral load. Although the risk is less, you can pass HIV to another person even if your viral load is undetectable.
ARE THERE PROBLEMS WITH THE VIRAL LOAD TEST?

There are some concerns with the viral load test:

* Only about 2% of the HIV in your body is in the blood. The viral load test does not measure how much HIV is in body tissues like the lymph nodes, spleen, or brain. HIV levels in lymph tissue and semen go down when blood levels go down, but not at the same time or the same rate.
* The viral load test results can be thrown off if your body is fighting an infection, or if you have just received an immunization (like a flu shot). You should not have blood taken for a viral load test within four weeks of any infection or immunization.