In the Pit thread about the recent AIDS scare in the porn industry, I asked why couldn’t actors who are HIV-positive work together.
To which Otto replied:
How true is this?
Actually, I think the biggest risk is cross-transmission of other infections and diseases. There are a lot of diseases people with impaired immune systems contract that people with normal immune systems do not. There are also issues with “shedding virii” and “virus load,” but IANAD and don’t know much about that.
Very true. Not that the super-resistant strains are necessarily more virulent, but they’re a lot harder to treat with the drugs we have now. And without viral suppression by the newer generations of anti-HIV drugs, the virus is still plenty virulent.
The reason people are living longer with HIV is because the drug combos have been working. If they stop, we lose the health and life extension edge we’ve achieved.
By “superinfection” I meant being infected by two or more strains of HIV. Perhaps “re-infection” would be a better term.
Ah, so. That’s makes more sense.
I would hate to imagine two viruses interbreeding. Sounds like a bad Robin Cook novel.