What does, 'not detected copies' mean in an HIV test?

Asked by tan253 (2948

) January 20th, 2017

A friend of mine had what turned out to be negative positive in an HIV test, so they ordered other tests to make sure.
He got a viral load test and it came back ’ no detected copies’ – does that mean he’s HIV free.
The Dr said it means he is but I was googling it and it says that it can say that but you can still have HIV – how-ever he’s not on HIV medication or anything so I assume it saying, ‘no detected copies’ definitely means – no HIV? Would that be correct?

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3 Answers

This is a really lousy place to ask such a serious, time-sensitive health question. I suggest this should be asked at HIV Helpline, Vancouver where physicians specializing in HIV/AIDS are available to answer questions such as this.

Be sure that your friend is able to enter the type of test s/he was administered and the full list of test results into their question to help the physicians give an accurate answer.

Espiritus_Corvus (17294

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You’re right, it’s not for him – he’s fine, the Dr told him it was negative and this was 2 years ago – I’m actually curious myself as I’ve read different things online – maybe I should stop reading online, he only told me today so I’m curious but yet you’re right, stupid to ask here and I can’t delete it now.

tan253 (2948

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LOL. Relax. We do stupid shit here all the time.

Espiritus_Corvus (17294

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