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Whats your viral load?


rawlover

What's your viral load?  

203 members have voted

  1. 1. What's your viral load?

    • Under 250
      94
    • Between 250 & 5,000
      11
    • Between 5,000 & 10,000
      14
    • Between 10,000 & 100,000
      33
    • Over 100,000
      47


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I got my labs last week and my CD4 is 242 and my viral load is half a million (500,000). I'm not on meds yet. My Dr suggested three different meds with a total of four pills. I probably won't start meds until next month.

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I got my labs last week and my CD4 is 242 and my viral load is half a million (500,000). I'm not on meds yet. My Dr suggested three different meds with a total of four pills. I probably won't start meds until next month.

Where are you located? Would love to fuck you before you go on meds... ;)

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Ok, call me dumb and stupid, but for clarification on these terms.

viral count = means the viral count in the blood

viral load = means the viral count in the semen

cd4 = ???? ok, this is a new one on me. Higher means what? Lower or neg means?

Never been tested. My Tcells dropped out to almost nothing one time during a very bad flu. After the flu my Tcell count came back up to normal. I was definately young and dumb at that time.

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viral load and viral count is basically the same thing: the number of virus copies per amount of blood. semen is not good for testing the viral load as it can vary more and changes in viral load can have a delay. i.e. in the blood you see it right away if meds work, with cum it can take much longer to notice effects. it's just not practical.

cd4 is the number of of CD4+ type t lymphocytes aka t helper cells. there are others like cd8+ and they matter as well to doctors, but for a basic picture of how much HIV has progressed, one looks at cd4+ cells first. numbers can vary from adult to adult, so relative changes are more important than absolute numbers. as a rule of thumb: 1000 is about average for a healthy human, 200 or less means AIDS.

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cd4 is the number of of CD4+ type t lymphocytes aka t helper cells. there are others like cd8+ and they matter as well to doctors, but for a basic picture of how much HIV has progressed, one looks at cd4+ cells first. numbers can vary from adult to adult, so relative changes are more important than absolute numbers. as a rule of thumb: 1000 is about average for a healthy human, 200 or less means AIDS.

I think that it's important to remember that the definition of aids varies from country to country (in the UK we tend to talk more about advanced HIV disease, for example). The <200 definition in the USA is a purely social definition as it gave a means of getting people who didn't otherwise have an aids diagnosis but were ill with some of the "lesser" opportunistic infections, or were going through malabsorption syndrome etc a means of receiving welfare benefits.

Also, it's important to look at the CD4 percentage; regardless of the number of CD4 cells, under 20% (in the UK) is the point where doctors would start thinking that the meds need an overhaul. Despite being very ill this year due to extremely rare side effects of the meds, my CD4 remained over 500/30+% and my VL in the upper thirties (we tend to use 40 as the cut-off for undetectable here).

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Also, it's important to look at the CD4 percentage; regardless of the number of CD4 cells, under 20% (in the UK) is the point where doctors would start thinking that the meds need an overhaul. Despite being very ill this year due to extremely rare side effects of the meds, my CD4 remained over 500/30+% and my VL in the upper thirties (we tend to use 40 as the cut-off for undetectable here).

Can you explain CD4 percentage - I haven't heard of it expressed that way. Percentage of the sample? Percentage of what? Is the sample size a constant?

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Can you explain CD4 percentage - I haven't heard of it expressed that way. Percentage of the sample? Percentage of what? Is the sample size a constant?

CD4 cells are a subset of the leucocytes. The following is from http://www.aidsmap.com/CD4-cell-counts/page/1327484/ which gives a basic, rather simplistic overview of CD4 counts:

In addition to using a test to count the number of CD4 cells, doctors sometimes measure the proportion of all white blood cells that are CD4 cells. This is called a CD4 cell percentage. Although it’s not recommended that CD4 percentages are used as a general indicator of the health of an adult’s immune system, there can be situations where it is a useful measurement. For example, if your CD4 percentage is very different to your CD4 cell count, it might be a sign of another health problem.

One circumstance when your doctor might measure your CD4 cell percentage could be if there is a big variation in your CD4 cell count between one test and the next.

More attention is now being paid in the UK to the CD4 percentage than this snippet implies. For example a trend of a falling percentage might be an indicator that a change of medication is needed.

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http://i-base.info/qa/20

Basically, means measuring your CD4 cells in the context of the total amount of cells. Are your CD4 values high because you are fighting an infection and all your values are up?

CD4 cells are a type of lymphocyte (white blood cell). They are an important part of the immune system. CD4 cells are sometimes called T-cells.

There are two main types of T-cells. T4 cells, also called CD4+, are “helper” cells. They lead the attack against infections. T8 cells, (CD8+), are “suppressor” cells that end the immune response. CD8+ cells can also be “killer” cells that kill cancer cells and cells infected with a virus.

The normal ranges for CD4 and CD8 counts varies depending on the lab and test, but for an HIV negative person a normal CD4 count is in the range 460 to 1600. This is an approximate. Anywhere in this ranges is fine. an HIV negative person with a normal CD4 count of 1200 is not more health than someone whose normal count is 600. A normal CD8 range is from 150 to 1000.

The ratio of CD4 cells to CD8 cells is often reported. This is calculated by dividing the CD4 value by the CD8 value. In HIV-negative people, this ratio is between 0.9 and 1.9, meaning that there are about 1-2 CD4 cells for every CD8 cell.

In HIV-positive people not on treatment, this ratio drops over time until there are more CD8 cells than CD4 cells (i.e. the ratio drops to less than 1.0).

Because the CD4 counts can vary from day to day and hour to hour, if you ever get an unexpectedly high or low CD4 count your CD4% (CD4 percentage) will indicate if this is a real change. The percentage refers to total lymphocytes.

If your test reports CD4% = 34%, that means that 34% of your lymphocytes were CD4 cells.

This percentage is more stable than the number of CD4 cells. The normal range for HIV-negative adults is about 40% (range

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