What lab tests do I need to take if I have HIV?

What lab tests do I need to take if I have HIV?

Charles Farthing (Chief of Medicine, AIDS Healthcare Foundation) gives expert video advice on: Why do I need to take lab tests if I have HIV? and more...

The HIV lab tests that the doctor does to determine what sort of treatment you need are the CD4 count, which is also known as the T cell Count, the T lymphocyte count or the helper cell count, and the HIV viral load, which is tested by PCR and is sometimes called the HIV PCR. Those two tests enable the doctor to know what to do. They tell us different things. The CD4 count tells us how advanced the disease is, how much immune system has been destroyed. If it's low, that's bad. The HIV viral load tells us how active the virus is. If it is very high, the virus disease is very active. If it's very low, it's very inactive. If the disease is very active, it means that the disease is moving fast and the CD4 count will probably fall over time quite quickly. If the disease is very inactive, the CD4 count may remain stable for a very long time.