My first VL/CD4 results

[HappyPozBoy]

So tested poz in April, converted around December/January. I don't want to take meds (for now) so havent gone to a clinic just done an Oraquik and it was poz. A friend who works in a clinic took some bloods to do a test off the record and came back today. VL 1.6 million CD4 425. Is that high for (relatively) new conversion? 

[poztwinksrhot]

I can't directly answer your question, but congrats on your result!!

[Close2MyBro]

That's an extremely high viral load.

[Cravetoxic22]

Woah that's really high from my understanding! But then again I'm not a doctor.  I hope you're also happy with the results. 

[LoveAndBeLoved]

Your viral load is typical of the acute phase of infection that lasts 3-4 weeks. This is followed by seroconversion which will most likely include several weeks of flu-like illness. A lot of patients are hospitalized in this phase. But it goes away eventually and the VL tapers off to tens of thousands range. I am not a doctor but I have heard from a lot of HIV positive men. Your case is surprising to me because your VL is so high even several months after infection. 

 

Your CD4 count is rather low, given the short timeframe of your infection. It would often take 2 years for CD4 to go down below 500. This number 500 is important because scientists say - if you start treatment before your CD4 drops below 500 (some papers use 350 instead of 500), you have a better chance at functional cure. Also, higher CD4 means the size of your HIV reservoir is small. ART will stop the virus from replicating but the reservoir will stay. There are some very promising clinical trials that show the viral reservoir can be shrunk but it's still several years from now. Google "kick and kill hiv" if you want to learn more.

 

There's a worrisome (but very unlikely) chance that you could have gotten HIV much earlier and the virus has started to beat your immune system.

 

Regardless of what is the reason behind your VL, you have an excellent CD4 (almost 500) to begin treatment and, when/if a functional cure comes, be at a promising position to get cured. If you do not drink and smoke and eat+live healthy, your life expectancy should be the same as a non-HIV positive peer.  If you wait more, your CD4 will go down and the resulting larger HIV reservoir will be a pain in the ass. I am sure you are aware of opportunistic infections like PCP that can kill people. 

 

If you visit a doctor now and start ART, your VL will go down very fast. CD4 will increase eventually but it may take a few years. Almost everyone becomes undetectable in 6 months. Once you have undetectable VL for 6 months, you cannot pass HIV through sex. Won't that be fun?

Edited August 27, 2021 by LoveAndBeLoved
Typos

[HappyPozBoy]

8 hours ago, LoveAndBeLoved said:

Your viral load is typical of the acute phase of infection that lasts 3-4 weeks. This is followed by seroconversion which will most likely include several weeks of flu-like illness. A lot of patients are hospitalized in this phase. But it goes away eventually and the VL tapers off to tens of thousands range. I am not a doctor but I have heard from a lot of HIV positive men. Your case is surprising to me because your VL is so high even several months after infection. 

 

Your CD4 count is rather low, given the short timeframe of your infection. It would often take 2 years for CD4 to go down below 500. This number 500 is important because scientists say - if you start treatment before your CD4 drops below 500 (some papers use 350 instead of 500), you have a better chance at functional cure. Also, higher CD4 means the size of your HIV reservoir is small. ART will stop the virus from replicating but the reservoir will stay. There are some very promising clinical trials that show the viral reservoir can be shrunk but it's still several years from now. Google "kick and kill hiv" if you want to learn more.

 

There's a worrisome (but very unlikely) chance that you could have gotten HIV much earlier and the virus has started to beat your immune system.

 

Regardless of what is the reason behind your VL, you have an excellent CD4 (almost 500) to begin treatment and, when/if a functional cure comes, be at a promising position to get cured. If you do not drink and smoke and eat+live healthy, your life expectancy should be the same as a non-HIV positive peer.  If you wait more, your CD4 will go down and the resulting larger HIV reservoir will be a pain in the ass. I am sure you are aware of opportunistic infections like PCP that can kill people. 

 

If you visit a doctor now and start ART, your VL will go down very fast. CD4 will increase eventually but it may take a few years. Almost everyone becomes undetectable in 6 months. Once you have undetectable VL for 6 months, you cannot pass HIV through sex. Won't that be fun?

thanks for the info. i'm meeting him tomorrow to go over it all just wanted some insight. should have added ive been having a lot of sex with unmedicated poz guys so that could be keeping it up. eitherway im happy with the results

[Guest]

When I was diagnosed in May I was recently converted since I tested neg in March so must have been infected sometime in April. My VL was astronomical at 6.8 million and CD4 under 400. After 4 weeks on Biktarvy my VL dropped to 113. My most recent test after 3 months on treatment I’m at 34 VL and 575 CD4.  I’m very pleased with my results 

[austin_submale]

47 minutes ago, HairyBeardedPozMan said:

When I was diagnosed in May I was recently converted since I tested neg in March so must have been infected sometime in April. My VL was astronomical at 6.8 million and CD4 under 400. After 4 weeks on Biktarvy my VL dropped to 113. My most recent test after 3 months on treatment I’m at 34 VL and 575 CD4.  I’m very pleased with my results 

Wish you could have shared it some when it was at 6.8 million!

 

[AuCurious]

Wow. That's a really high VL for such a recent conversion -- but judging by your name, it's what you wanted, so congrats!

[ErosWired]

Some of these replies are fucking nauseating. This is the HIV/AIDS & Sexual Health forum. Take your bugchasing and giver/chaser fetish shit to the bugchasing forum where it belongs. The OP has a shockingly high viral load and his CD4 count indicates that the Enemy Virus is successfully destroying his immune system - and you sick motherfuckers don’t give a rat’s ass about his well-being. “Welcome to the brotherhood”? You can’t call people who care so little about each other’s lives brothers in any sense of the word. I’m a seven-year AIDS survivor who came as close to death from it as you possibly can, so I qualify for your “brotherhood” about as well as anyone, but I want no part of your bugchasing “brotherhood” of lunatics.

The OP has joined a different kind of brotherhood, whether he realizes it or not - a brotherhood of those who have to fight the Enemy to survive.

To the OP: It is imperative that you begin ART as soon as possible to mitigate the damage being done to your immune system. My CD4 count got to 49. I will likely never see 500 again. Right now, after seven years of rigorous adherence to ART, my system was so damaged I am still struggling to keep it above 200.

You think you want this. You don’t. If you reach AIDS and the opportunistic microorganisms that surround us attack you, you’ll either die, or you will suffer and sexy will be the last thing on your mind. And even if you don’t let it get to that extreme, HIV doesn’t just sit there idle in your body - your body is under a constant siege of inflammation, and science still isn’t sure of all of the results of that, but you’ll be more susceptible to certain cancers, it’ll be easier for you to get sick, and be sicker when you do. Even when you get past the point where you have to take prophylactic meds to stave off pneumonia, meningitis, and a dozen other illnesses waiting in line to kill you, expect to endure molluscum, thrush, candidiasis and shingles. Had ‘em all.

Guess what? People with advanced or untreated HIV are on the list of those the CDC has identified for whom the COVID vaccines aren’t as effective and who need a third and likely a fourth vaccination to maintain a level of protection from COVID. I’m now triple-vaxxed because without it I could end up on a fucking ventilator.

This is what you want? This is the fate you’re merrily passing on to other people you fuck with your sky-high viral load? This is the result you’re happy with? Think none of the above will happen to you? Think again, brother. It’s already happening. I’ve been to that place and just barely made it back alive. You don’t want to go there. Anybody who says he does is either non compos mentis or just a goddamned idiot.

[drscorpio]

Moderator's Note: No penalties this time, but several posts were hidden. Sexual Health is NOT in the Backroom. Keep the Poz Fetish talk out of this area. 

[Guest]

10 years later......... 

2011 Don't remember what VL was but CD4 was 325. Started Atripla. I think there was a reason the word TRIP is in the name. Cuz I was tripping to the point where we had to change it right away - within a month. Fortunately Complera had JUST been released otherwise would have been multiple pills. 

Regardless in 2 months I was undetectable and CD4 was almost 600. Ten years undetectable. CD4 all over the place. Mid 500s to as high as 995. Biktarvy now. 

[ErosWired]

1 hour ago, CumdumpDad said:

Regardless in 2 months I was undetectable and CD4 was almost 600. Ten years undetectable. CD4 all over the place. Mid 500s to as high as 995. Biktarvy now. 

That’s great that you’ve been able to maintain your CD4 count in the normal range. It makes a big difference starting ART before the damage is too severe and the virus becomes too heavily reservoired. I have no idea what my CD4 levels were like before I was infected, but here in my mid-50s, my doctor just let me know straight up that I wouldn’t be getting back to 500. I hit 439 two years ago, but was back at 208 this spring even though I stayed Undetectable. And I have missed exactly one dose of ART in seven years. Very frustrating.

[LetsPOZBreed]

On 11/4/2021 at 8:07 PM, CumdumpDad said:

10 years later......... 

2011 Don't remember what VL was but CD4 was 325. Started Atripla. I think there was a reason the word TRIP is in the name. Cuz I was tripping to the point where we had to change it right away - within a month. Fortunately Complera had JUST been released otherwise would have been multiple pills. 

Regardless in 2 months I was undetectable and CD4 was almost 600. Ten years undetectable. CD4 all over the place. Mid 500s to as high as 995. Biktarvy now. 

I was started on Atripla too when my VL dropped below 500.  Worked very quickly and I was UD in under 6 months after starting off with a VL of 14000 at diagnosis.

I know others who were started on Atripla but asked to be taken off cause of the "trip" factor.  I was warned by my doctor about this being a side effect; it did give me strange dreams, but nothing I can't handle.  Still on it and still UD nearly 10 years later.

[Blake]

My first lab results I had a VL of 141,000, and about 10 days later I had all the additional lab work after getting told I tested positive. My second results shocked everyone how quickly they jumped. I had a VL of 6,650,000 and my CD4 was 314. I got a call from the local health department before my doctor even got those results. I called my doctor freaking out, and she was PISSED because that should have never been a phone conversation.