POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: scaredom on August 30, 2008, 04:23:59 pm
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Is it possible for a person to survive indefinitely with a virus load of Undetectable? Does that level of virus load still damage the immune system?
Just trying to learn and looking for a silver lining.
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Is your viral load undetectable?
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I'm guessing not, perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. I am newly tested positive and do know any numbers yet. I am looking for something to hope for. I have read posts that say undetectable is the goal and am wondering what the significance is of it. I haven't found anything that says one way or the other.
I do understand that it is a very good thing.
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I am curious about this question. My viral load is undetectable and my T-Cell are in the high 600's.
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I have read posts that say undetectable is the goal and am wondering what the significance is of it.
the less hiv floating around in your system, the less hiv is damaging your system;
the less damage (and less opportunity for other illnesses to gain a foothole) and the healthier you'll be;
and the healthier you are, the longer you should live. ;)
total eradication of the virus isn't possible yet, so the goal is the proper use of hiv meds to knock the viral load down as low as possible ("undetectable" doesn't quite mean the hiv is gone, just so low (in quantity) as to be very hard to count).
my T-Cell are in the high 600's.
t-cells are part of your immune system that hiv attacks, making your body less able to fight off other diseases. high tcells mean your system is ready to fight off those other illnesses; low tcells means your immune system is compromised and might not be able to stave off an opportunistic infection.
that's it in a nutshell. a simple nutshell, mind you. to get all the nitty-gritty, read through some of the lessons at http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/WhatIsAIDS_4994.shtml