The annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections is always guaranteed to stir the pot with exciting information. Last week’s gathering in San Francisco was no exception, as researchers suggested that the annual rate of HIV “superinfection” – a second infection with another strain – may be 5% or more.
From the beginning of real AIDS programs, HIV-positive individuals were cautioned to avoid reinfecting themselves, because the second strain might be much more disease-causing (pathogenic) than their original one. Then, during the latter 1990s, scientists became fairly convinced that an already-infected person could not be infected again. That conclusion got shaken up, however, in 2002 when two cases were independently presented demonstrating that superinfection had indeed happened through unprotected sex, and both patients were progressing more rapidly toward AIDS.
Now in San Francisco, a new study of 78 HIV-positive people (mostly gay men) from 1997 to 2003 has identified patients becoming reinfected with a second strain at a rate of 5% per year. Admittedly, the study was rather small, but the genetic analysis technique used to differentiate between strains is a conservative one, so the actual rate may be even higher.
What does this mean for HIV-positive people in Austin? If poz people are not abstaining from sex and drug use, they must play safely for their own sakes, not just for the protection of others. Having HIV is no fun, even if it’s responding to treatment. Having a more aggressive, drug-resistant strain could be a disaster.
For details, go to www.retroconference.org.
Sandy Bartlett
Community Education Coordinator, AIDS Services of Austin
This article appears in February 20 • 2004.