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Viral load (LV) measures the amount of virus in body fluids and is used to monitor diseases such as HIV-1. Successful therapies see a decrease in LV within six months, and LV testing allows for earlier detection than antibody testing, which could prevent the spread of HIV. Low-cost LV tests are being pursued for worldwide use.
A person’s viral load (LV) is the amount of a given virus they have in a certain amount of body fluid. Different viruses use different metrics to measure a viral load, but one of the most common is one used to measure viruses in blood, which is measured as copies of the virus in one milliliter of plasma. The LV is used to provide a quick understanding of the severity of a viral infection, although the severity in most cases is also influenced by other factors, including a person’s immune system and the severity of the viral strain.
Although many viruses are tested, most commonly a person’s viral load is determined for hepatitis B and C, HIV-1, and cytomegalovirus. Of these, HIV-1 viral load testing is the most common and is an important part of managing one’s life with the disease. There are currently three tests approved for use in the United States: NucliSens HIV-1 QT, Amplicor HIV-1, and Versant/Quantiplex HIV-1 RNA.
Typically, viral load testing is used to monitor a patient who is already known to be infected with a disease such as HIV-1. These tests allow doctors to see how well a patient is responding to an anti-HIV regimen, allowing them to better tailor the drugs used to inhibit the disease as closely as possible. Successful therapies will see a dramatic decrease in LV, between 1/30th and 1/100th, within a month and a half. Within six months viral detection should be more or less impossible. Tests can also show when a patient is carrying a particularly high viral load, during which time they are particularly susceptible to becoming infected with secondary diseases that can be life-threatening.
While the currently approved forms of viral load testing are too costly to use as a detection modality, there are some techniques used outside the United States to detect HIV-1 that are much more cost-effective. The HIV VL test is superior to the antibody test in many ways. It is also necessary when trying to detect HIV in an infant of an HIV-positive mother, as antibodies to it will still be present in the infant and therefore cannot be used to positively confirm or eliminate the presence of the virus.
HIV viral load testing also allows for much earlier detection than antibody testing, as antibodies can take weeks to appear in the system. Since it is during this early stage that HIV is most transmissible, being able to detect it early could have huge positive benefits on preventing the spread of HIV. For this reason, many public health agencies are pursuing low-cost, easy-to-administer LV tests that can be used worldwide as an early detection system.
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