Another important number other than t-cell or CD4 count, is the viral load. Simply put, the viral load is the number of copies of the virus in your blood. The viral load is part of one's quarterly labwork. Initially I had 144,000 copies in my blood. At the time I was ignorant about all these numbers, but after a while we get to understand our labs.
Along with other tests, the HIV viral load test helps monitor your disease, guide HIV therapy, and predict how your disease may progress. Keeping your viral load low can reduce complications of HIV disease and extend your life. The thing to remember is to have a high t-cell count and a low viral load.
After five years in highly active antiretroviral therapy, or HAART, my latest CD4 count is 146 and my viral load is under 50 or undetectable. So apparently my therapy is working. Since I was diagnosed with the 3 initial t-cells, my progress has been slowly climbing.
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