Viral load is the term used to describe the amount of virus in your blood ( # of HIV RNA copies per millilitre). The more HIV viruses that are in your blood, the faster your CD4’s will be depleted and your risk of disease and illness will increase.
When first infected with HIV (sero-converting), your viral load may be around 100,000 or more. This will soon drop to around 10-30 thousand until you start HAART. If your HAART regime is working, your viral load should fall to “undetectable” within approximately 3-6 months. This means that you have less than 40 HIV RNA copies per ml of blood. One of the goals of HAART is to keep that viral load at “undetectable”. You can expect to have lab tests anywhere from every 1-6 months once your viral load has stabilized.
We’d love to hear your questions about your viral load, or any other lab results that you may receive. Until next week, be well!
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