What does less than 12 viral load mean?

[h2sguy]

Hi everyone
Just finished 8week harvoni treatment on February 3rd...did blood work on February 4th!
My hep nurse phoned today while I was working and left me a message  saying she got my results back and turns out my viral load count is less than 12 , which she says is common.....now I wait til April 28th for 12 week post treatment blood work to see if I'm actually clear of virus?
Obviously if it's showing something there was some virus  in me still ....
What are your thoughts??

[h2sguy]

thank you for your response...im just waiting for my nurse to call me back to verify
I will keep you posted

[flyinlynn]

Depending on the test being used it is likely that the test has a LLOQ a Lower Limit of Quantification of 12 meaning that the test c o detect down to 12. On my test the LLOQ is 15 but then my result says "Not Detected"

So without seeing your actual lab report. It could be your result is "less than 12 and detected", "12 and detected" or less than 12 and "Not Detected"

I know of several people who were weakly detected at EOT but still went on to achieve SVR 12 when tested at the 12 week after treatment test. Our best guess is maybe the test was picking up the RNA of virus pieces

The only test that matters is the 12 week pot treatment  test so hang in there you will know soon if you are in the clear.