'A very large virus army is difficult for our immune system to fight off.' What is viral load? Your viral load is simply how much virus you have in your body – in medical terms it refers to how much virus is measured in a standard volume of fluid, usually blood or plasma. It is commonly used when talking about HIV – patients whose conditions are being well managed and are on the correct medication have an undetectable viral load, meaning that they cannot pass the disease onto others. What does it mean for transmission of Covid-19?
The “infectious dose” is the amount of virus that an individual needs to be exposed to for them to pick up the virus. With flu viruses, individuals only need to pick up a small amount of particles for them to become sick. In Covid-19 scientists don’t yet know how big a dose a person needs to be exposed to but it is likely to be relatively small because of the…
