HIV Viral Load 'Blips'

[anonfuck28]

Just got my recent labs back, and my viral load has 'blipped' to about 200 from being UD.

Got me thinking, how common is this? I've had about 4 blips over a 15 year history since being on meds, curious if other guys have this happen occassionally.

Upon retest it's always been back to UD. Appreciate it's sometimes called a 'lab error' but just got me thinking, if other guys have seen this too

On a slightly separate note, i did wonder if it had 'blipped' due to being reinfected with HIV, but as far as I can tell, this hasn't been documented before

 

[Guest Descartes70817]

Since I first achieved undetectable I've already had a blip, and it hasn't been 4 years yet.

[negbtm]

Could be you consumed something or took something that temporarily decreased the effectiveness of youe meds, but all lab work has an inherent amount error so it could have just been that. The cdc site says blips are common and nothing to worry about it. 

[cfuckhole]

Did you start treatment when you reached the later stages of infection ie symptomatic and aids defining stage? If so could be due to a larger viral reservoir in the body and there are reports that these group blips more frequently, but then again it could also be the fault of the particular lab. If switching to another diagnostic lab reduces the blips significantly then the lab might be the cause.

[wood]

There are tons of reasons for this, and as long as your are taking your medication consistently, you shouldn’t worry at all. 
 

remember the threshold of undetectable used to be a 1000, then 500, then 200, then 50, and iirc it’s 25 now, just as testing methods have improved. So yeah don’t worry. 

[lower_bucks_bottom]

I have been UD since 2012. Within the first year I have 2 blips of ~40 each. Since then I have been solidly UD until this fall when I had a blip of 126. My ID Doc's opinion was that it was because I got a flu shot a few weeks before the VL test

[rawTOP]

Just to set your mind at ease, my understanding is that you have to get up to roughly 1,000 to infect someone (who isn't on PrEP). So at 200 it's unlikely you were a danger to anyone.

[PupLucca]

I've been going through a "blip" since October 227 then rechecked a month later and it was 125. Next blood draw February 8th 345 and rechecked Feb 25th 125 again.  I have since stopped meds for a vacation to see it things improve once I go back on meds

[ErosWired]

Remember, a viral load test is an assay to determine the number of copies within a specific sample quantity, and a determination of Undetectable is made if the assay does not find copies in excess of a specified threshold - but it doesn’t mean that the assay didn’t find any. Your UD result probably always has a number of copies per sample returned, you just don’t see that number, and if the UD threshold for that test is 25, your actual VL for that test could have been 24 and you’d never know. But it it came back 26, you would, because as far as the test is concerned you’re no longer Undetectable, and *blip*.

Don’t sweat it. I’ve got a great infectious disease specialist and she says blips happen all the time for lots of reasons and if a patient is meds-compliant they usually don’t mean anything except to remind us that the Enemy Virus is still here. And it is - never, ever forget it or become complacent - you have a virus that will kill you if it can. It came within hours of killing me in 2014. Never let your guard down, never miss your meds, or it will jump back up to try to bite you. But if you’re following your treatment, those blips are going to stay low. Whether you’re UD or not becomes a question of statistics as long as you’re maintaining viral suppresion.

Since I first became Undetectable in 2015, I’ve had three blips: 65, 43, and 38. Two of those would still have been considered UD under an earlier test with a 50-count threshold, and the third would have been under the prior test with a 200-count threshold. And my last three tests have been UD. Note: I have missed exactly one dose of ART since I started taking it in September 2014. One. Uno. That’s how you keep the number where it needs to be. The only reason I see blips now is that I wasn’t diagnosed or treated until I had a CD4 count of 49 and a VL of 84,000.

[ErosWired]

21 minutes ago, PupLucca said:

I've been going through a "blip" since October 227 then rechecked a month later and it was 125. Next blood draw February 8th 345 and rechecked Feb 25th 125 again.  I have since stopped meds for a vacation to see it things improve once I go back on meds

That is unwise. The virus doesn’t take vacations. Instead, what it will do is take advantage of the fact that it isn’t being suppressed to replicate and increase your viral load, and possibly increase its reservoirs in your body.

 I talked to my specialist about this very thing two weeks ago. Many factors could be contributing to your meds not being as effective as they should. Depending on hat you eat and when you eat it in relation to when you take your meds, your diet could be interfering with full potency. Do you use anything like psyllium husk (Metamucil) as prep for cleanout? If used around the time you take your meds, it can actually encapsulate your meds and prevent their absorption (someone on here posted about passing an entire ART pill this way). Stress can be a factor, lack of exercise, certain nutritional deficiencies - or even simply that the med you’re taking isn’t optimal for your body chemistry. There are choices, and a med change might be in order.

I strongly encourage you talk to your doctor to try to deduce what may be causing therapeutic failure rather than causing complete therapeutic failure by completely failing to take the therapy.

[Guest]

I've had several blips in my 16 years on meds.  I freaked out the first couple of times but now I am calmer. As long as you are med-adherent you should quickly go back to being undetectable. Sometimes the blip is merely caused by the lab. 

[Guest Goodbye]

So far the meds been doing what it's suppose to... Even after changing regime due to Side effects...