Detectable viral load is defined as having more than 200 copies of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) per milliliter of blood. To understand detectable viral load, let us first understand what viral load exactly means. Viral load refers to the number of HIV copies present in a milliliter of the blood sample.

Most doctors consider a viral load of 500 or fewer HIV RNA copies per mL low, while a viral load of 40,000 or more HIV RNA copies per mL is considered high. Before your doctor makes decisions about your HIV medicines, they may want you to have 2 PVL tests done 2 to 3 weeks apart to monitor changes.

A plasma viral load test (also called a PVL test) measures how much HIV is in your blood. The amount of virus in your blood is called your viral load. HIV means “human immunodeficiency virus.” If your doctor knows your viral load, he or she can tell more about your risk for health problems caused by HIV infection.

Even if you are undetectable, there will still be some HIV hidden in some parts of the body, so you will usually test positive for HIV. To learn more about how HIV remains in your body, despite being undetectable in our blood please see here.