Viral load and the risk of cirrhosis

[April63]

Hello, I've been talking to a friend who has a viral load of just over 1mln UI. My husband's viral load is almost 400 000 IU. That friend told me that the viral load is the only factor in predicting cirrhosis in a patient. But I've read somewhere,that sometimes patients even with low viral load will quickly develop cirrhosis. So is viral load the most important agent in liver damage? Thank you kindly for clearing this out for me.

[April63]

You're amazing! Thank you!:) This will be my reading this weekend. All the best.-April63

[bram44]

Hep B progression occurs in stages. One of them is immune tolerance phase (viral load could be in millions, but immune system simply ignores the virus). Liver biopsy shows little or no fibrosis.

During immune clearance phase, immune system finally recongnizes the intruder and starts eliminating it. This is when liver gets scarred, leading to HCC/cirrosis.  

Actually it is the immune system response to the virus that causes liver damage. One could have very low viral load,but significant damage to the liver.

Do a search on immune clearance in this forum. There are lot of eductional posts.