a little confused

[chance842]

I found out I have hep c a little of a month ago. Go to have blood work this week to find out what geno this week. But what I don't understand is the viral load number he gave me today.  He said it is 3,860,000.I thought I heard him wrong about the 3 million part, so asked and he assured me that was my viral load. Everything I have read talks about 800,000 as a high number. The hep c tracker will not let me enter 3,860,000 says it's to high. What am I doing wrong or over looking?

[flyinlynn]

I answered you on the other thread you commented on but here yo ugo again:

The hep c tracker wants the log10 IU/mL number not the IU/mL number.

For example my viral load is 2,422,260 IU/mL while on the logarithmic scale it is 6.384 log10 IU/mL. The logarithmic scale is how scientists evaluate populations of any species.

Basically a different scale to look at the same information.

So when I enter my viral load I enter 6.4

here is a tool to compute a log value

https://www.easycalculation.com/log-antilog.php

I converted your for you and got 6.586587304671754 log10 IU/mL try that number. by the way log10 means log base 10 when spoken.


Adding here some more info about viral load but none of this matters viral load does not correlate with severitl of disease some have high viral load and minimal damage while others have lower viral loads and more damage. The only thing that does matter is UND 12 weeks post treatment

"There is still no general agreement on what Viral Load is considered low and what is high in Hepatitis C. This interpretation makes sense for people not currently being treated - for someone who is 6 months into an INF + RIBA trial, even 200,000 could be considered a high titer.

(Numbers are Virus Equivalents per Milliliter)

below 200,000 very low (undetectable by *bDNA* test)

200,000 to 1,000,000 low

1,000,000 to 5,000,000 medium

5,000,000 to 25,000,000 high

above 25,000,000 very high

Once again, please note that this information is not written by an MD or medical expert. Nothing can (or should) take the place of appropriate medical care."


Again Good Luck
Lynn

[Livelife777]

Hi and welcome to Medhelp.  Your Dr is likely right that your viral load is in the 3 million plus range.  That is a typical viral load number and not out of range.  I've actually seen people in the 20 million or so.
The viral load number does not indicate damage.  You can have a reading of 10 thousand or 10 million and still get the same result.
Hope that helps and don't worry that this is out of the norm.  You can easily treat your virus with an excellent outcome.
Best to you
....Kim