What causes virological failure?
Virologic failure occurs when antiretroviral therapy (ART) fails to suppress and sustain a person’s viral load to less than 200 copies/mL. Factors that can contribute to virologic failure include drug resistance, drug toxicity, and poor adherence to ART.
What is considered treatment failure?
Treatment failure is defined as persistent symptoms or signs or a sustained four-fold increase or failure to achieve a four-fold decrease in those with high-titer initial results (equivalent to a two-dilution change) in nontreponemal test titer.
What is immunological failure?
Immunological failure occurs when there is a fall of CD4 counts to pretherapy baseline (or below) or 50% fall from the on-treatment peak value (if known) or persistent CD4 levels below 100 cells/mm3 6 months after ART initiation [14, 15].
What is the most frequent cause of ART treatment failure?
Recognizing and Managing Antiretroviral Treatment Failure The causes of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment failure—which include poor adherence, drug resistance, poor absorption of medications, inadequate dosing, and drug–drug interactions—should be assessed and addressed (AII).
What is virologic suppression?
Virologic Control. When antiretroviral therapy (ART) reduces a person’s viral load (HIV RNA) to an undetectable level. Viral suppression does not mean a person is cured; HIV still remains in the body.
What is the virologic criteria for treatment failure on antiretroviral treatment?
Virological failure is defined as when antiretroviral therapy (ART) fails to suppress viral replication to lower than 1000 copies/mL, while immunological failure is a fall of CD4 + count below 250 cells/µL following clinical failure, or persistent CD4 + count below 100 cells/μL [7].
When are you considered undetectable?
When copies of HIV cannot be detected by standard viral load tests, an HIV-positive person is said to have an “undetectable viral load.” For most tests used clinically today, this means fewer than 50 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood (<50 copies/mL). Reaching an undetectable viral load is a key goal of ART.
What happens if you fail to take Arvs?
Antiretroviral treatment (ART) reduces the level of HIV in your blood so that it cannot damage your immune system. If you do not take your medication correctly (at the right time every day), the level of HIV in your blood may increase and the treatment may stop working. This is known as developing drug resistance.
What viral load is undetectable?
When copies of HIV cannot be detected by standard viral load tests, an HIV-positive person is said to have an “undetectable viral load.” For most tests used clinically today, this means fewer than 50 copies of HIV per milliliter of blood (<50 copies/mL).