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What is a dangerous Viral Load number

I went from 1.2ml VL before my most recent triple therapy with Incivek.  Was undectable after 2 weeks.  Had to come off all meds by week 7 because of bad reaction. 2 wks after stopping meds VL was 4.2ml.  What is this range considered and how high does it go before it is really serious?  Also is there a website about this and about what your genotype and stages mean?
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163305 tn?1333668571
I had a transplant almost three years ago.
If you  want to 'chat' with me, you are welcome to send me a private message.
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Avatar universal
we sound he same, viral laod at its highet I did not feel too bad now lower I feel realy bad, may have a partial liver donor, been on treatment twice, also  geno2 severe cirrhosis. write back thanks leanne
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163305 tn?1333668571
The talk about viral loads drive me nuts because they really don't have anything to do with the amount of damage to your liver.
My viral load was 750,000 when diagnosed and I had severe damage, decompensated cirrhosis.
I have friends whose viral loads were much higher and they have no damage.

It's only important for treatment because it show whether or not it's working.

    

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1815939 tn?1377991799
I am very sorry to hear you had a severe rash and had to come off the meds. Hopefully you can treat in the future with some of the new meds in trial. I wish you the best.

Stick around. There is a lot of good information on this forum.
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Avatar universal
I forgot to answer your question about your VL.  4.2 million would be considered to be a medium VL.  Here is some info that I posted in my journals about VL:

http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/332522/Viral-Load-HCV-Equivalents-per-Milliliter--Viral-Load-Chart

Advocate1955
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Avatar universal
Any viral load is dangerous.  Other than determining a baseline VL and measuring progress during treatment, how high or how low your VL may be is irrelevant.  There doesn't appear to be any correlation between VL and progression of liver disease.  It is the presence of the virus in your blood that causes your liver to scar and progressively work less effectively.  There is also no sure way to anticipate how quickly or slowly that damage may progress, but generally speaking most people experience a very slow progression over decades.  I have read that a lower VL improves chances for successful treatment, but the VL does fluctuate frequently as charm said above.
Advocate1955
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Avatar universal
That's just the information I was looking for.  Thanks, so much!
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276730 tn?1327962946
My viral load was 75 million before starting SOC tx. That was almost as high as you can go. Viral loads flucuate. I imagine anything over 1 million would be considered high, however it really doesnt mean a thing unless you are treating... Liver biopsy is the only way to determine liver damage.

Stage 1- Inflammation
Stage 2- Mild Fibrosis
Stage 3- Bridging Fibrosis
Stage 4- Cirhossis


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