What you need to know about CD4 count and viral load

What you need to know about CD4 count and viral load

When one gets infected by HIV, the virus weakens the immune system. This may result in a decrease in CD4 count, which opens room for opportunistic infection. 
A CD4 count tells you how many CD4 cells are in a drop of blood. The more the CD4 cells, the better.
Viral load measures how much HIV is there in a drop of blood.



A viral load test shows how much HIV is in a small sample of blood.

The lower the viral load the better. The aim of HIV treatment is to reduce viral load to a level which is too low to be measured by standard tests. This is called an ‘undetectable’ viral load.
This means HIV is still present in your body, but at a low level.  

See the illustration below:



Source: Wikipedia 

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