Table of Contents
- 1 How long does it usually take for a person living with HIV to have an undetectable viral load after starting treatment?
- 2 Can a person with low viral load transmit HIV?
- 3 Can a person with undetectable viral load test negative?
- 4 What happens if I don’t take ARVs?
- 5 Can you get HIV from someone who is undetectable?
- 6 What does HIV viral load tell you?
There is still a considerable risk of passing HIV on. After starting HIV treatment, viral load usually falls rapidly. Within three to six months, most people’s viral load has become undetectable.
If a viral load is considered undetectable, it means the medication is working. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a person with an undetectable viral load has “effectively no risk” of sexually transmitting HIV.
How long can HIV go undetected without treatment?
A person’s viral load is considered “durably undetectable” when all viral load test results are undetectable for at least six months after their first undetectable test result. This means that most people will need to be on treatment for 7 to 12 months to have a durably undetectable viral load.
Having an undetectable of zero viral load does not mean you are HIV negative. If you were to do another HIV antibody test it would come back as being positive.
What happens if I don’t take ARVs?
Antiretroviral treatment (ART) reduces the level of HIV in your blood so that it cannot damage your immune system. If you do not take your medication correctly (at the right time every day), the level of HIV in your blood may increase and the treatment may stop working. This is known as developing drug resistance.
How long should I wait for undetectable viral load?
A person’s viral load is considered “durably undetectable” when all viral load test results are undetectable for at least six months after their first undetectable test result. This means that most people will need to be on treatment for 7 to 12 months to have a durably undetectable viral load.
Can you get HIV from someone who is undetectable?
Any person known to be HIV infected should not donate blood, even if their most recent viral load is undetectable. People with HIV who are undetectable can still transmit the virus to another person sexually, to an infant (if a pregnant woman), or via blood transfusion.
The HIV viral load test is used initially, along with a CD4 count, to determine the status of HIV infection in a person diagnosed with the disease. The viral load is then used to monitor the effectiveness of antiretroviral treatment (ART) over time.
How long can one live with HIV virus?
What we can say is that the vast majority of people infected with HIV will develop AIDS sometime during their life (an average of 10 years or more after infection), and with early intervention and treatment, they could potentially live with AIDS for many years more.