A high viral load is considered to be anything over 800,000 IU/ml (800,000 International Units per milliliter of blood or 800,000 standardized units per milliliter) or 2 million copies/ml. A low viral load is, typically, anything less than that, although some studies have shown that the cutoff is too high and should be readjusted to indicate that those with a viral load of 400,000 IU/ml or lower are thought to respond best to treatment.
It’s important to understand that, even though viral load is measured when a person tests positive for HCV antibodies and then again at regular intervals while they are undergoing treatment for HCV (usually, every 3 months), viral load is only a measurement of the potential for successful therapy and then whether or not therapy was successful. Other tests – liver biopsies and enzyme tests or genotyping one’s virus will determine the extent of the disease’s damage to the liver and how fast the disease will progress.
What is the name of the test?
If it is the HCV RNA by PCR test that is looking for the presence of the Hepatitis C virus in your blood this would mean you have a viral load of 1 million virus in every mL of your blood. This would mean you need to be treated to eridicate the hep c virus from your blood.
The result would be something like
HCV RNA detected
10000000 IU/mL
But right now I am not sure what test you are asking about.
What has your doctor that requested this test for you told you?