I’m sure this one has been answered before, but I couldn’t find it in Cecil’s archive, so as my last thread as a guest on this wonderful board, I ask this:
If a person has HIV, and has sexual intercourse with another infected person, is it possible contract a different form of the disease and become even sicker, or even if they have the same strain, will/can they become doubly infected?
… “Yeah, I’m shooting for the whole Hepatitus collection… A, B *and * C”
Ok… not very funny… but you had to’ve been there 
IANA doctor of medicine, but I think the answer is no. Once infected, you remain with your strain…
Coinfection with multiple strains is certainly possible, and does occur.
I think if you came into contact with a person who harbored a more virulent strain, it’s quite possible the virus would out-compete whatever strain you already have. Also, if you’re on medications for which the strain you carry has not developed a resistance, and you come into contact with one that has, you certainly could exit remission until a more effective coctail could be administered.
I think it’s entirely possible to be made more sick by a superinfection, under certain circumstances. My I think I remember reading about a transient period of superinfection with even fairly equivalent strains where viral loads are significantly increased. My guess is after that, one or other strain tends to dominate.
If you have HIV, it is still recommended that you do not have sex even with other HIV infected partners. If they have a different variation, you could end up with two types of the virus.
I once met a married couple who both had HIV. They did have sex but used every precaution with condoms and barriers. They were advised on the risk of having an additional strand of the HIV virus in there systems.
Actually (sorry, can’t dig up a cite at the moment), people with AIDS can become cross-infected by another strain of AIDS, making it more difficult to treat their ongoing disease due to the new strain and what antiretroviral drugs it might already be resistant to. IANAD/N, but I do work in a medical center with patients with AIDS.
Here is a fact sheet on HIV and mutated forms that have become resistant to different drugs. It addresses proper medication taking - much like how you’re told to take a full course of antibiotics, lest you only create a resistant form of the bacteria - but the idea is the same with having sex with other people with HIV; you risk introducing a form of the virus that is resistant to your current medication regimen, which will create problems for your health.
wow, thanks for the quick answers and info…that’s why I love this place!
So sign up and join. 
Yeah! Fork over the dough, damnit!
yeah, yeah…pushy, pushy… 
I intend to! Just gonna wait and see if Santa gives me a credit card for Christmas! I cut mine up a few months ago. So, I will sign up, dammit! Just give me a little time. I’ll be a lurking observer for a while, strting tomorrow, though I know it’s so painful when you can’t and know the answer, or have a great quip…oh, the pain, the pain…
Damn you guys are quick!
My GF was studying that all weekend, so I felt qualified to answer that.
As another little tidbit of info, HIV is incredibly mutable. There have been documented cases where HIV strains have evolved to different regions/tissues in the body. I think the diagram I saw was of 13 distinctly genetically different strains in a single person. But they could be phylogenetically traced back to the original.
I like this new attitude - we’re like drug dealers now. The first one’s free…after that, you’ve gotta pay up!
If finances are tough, look here.
This was a question on a biochemistry exam for me. We were given data for a hypothetical patient, showing WBC counts, I believe. The dates when medication started and stopped were indicated. We also looked at some sequencing of the virus from blood samples. To answer the question correctly, you had to conclude that the patient had become infected by a different strain (too different to be random mutation of what he already had been infected with) after he had stopped taking his medication.
We’re merely ensuring our own supply =)