Rebloging this to add a little more info because itâs very important:
Antiretroviral therapy when used correctly can cause the userâs âviral loadâ (your viral load is how much of the virus is in your bloodstream), to drop because the medicine prevents HIV from creating copies of itself.
Regular blood tests are done to monitor your viral load, and after taking the medication long enough, it can drop so low that it becomes âdurably undetectableâ. This means that the HIV virus in you has become so miniscule that it canât be detected, and by extension canât be transmitted either. Itâs important to note that in order to be considered durable undetectable, you MUST test as undetectable for at least 6 months after testing as undetectable for the first time.
Also very important, being durably undetectable does NOT mean that youâre cured or that the virus is gone, not by a longshot. The HIV virus is still very much there, but instead of being active, itâs gone dormant in a small number of cells called âviral reservoirsâ. This why itâs EXTREMELY important that even after achieving durably undetectable status, you continue to take your Antiretroviral medications correctly. Because if you stop, the HIV virus will reemerge from the viral reservoirs and pick up right where it left off in creating copies of itself, and you will have to start all over again if you want to become durably undetectable again.
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