HIV variation help?

[Leae]

Treated for chlamydia nearly two weeks ago I’m booked in for a retest on Wednesday and now a H.I.V test too. Today I got a call saying a sexual partner has a ‘H.I.V variant’ in this bloods he sent off. Can anyone shed any light on this as the doctor didn’t give him much of information and now it’s slightly concerning he could’ve given it to me.

[Anon0121_]

I believe there’s two types that branch off into smaller subgroups this being HIV-1 this is the most common with the majority of those infected being infected with type 1 and is also considered the worst one however they both lead to aids (obviously medication prevents getting to this). In this however there are 4 (MNOP) groups that have subgroups aswell in group M (major) of hiv-1 there are 9 other groups a,b,c,d,f,g,h,j and k. In this group is where the majority of strains lie as the other groups are unlikely as they are very much limited to small areas of Africa and neighbouring countries.

Hiv-2 is the other main group that then branches off however this is very rare outside of Africa.

I assume your doctor has said strain meaning that it’ll be one of those mentioned above. The probability of it being hiv 1 is high and the probability of it being HIV-1 M-major and then one of those 9 subcategories is higher.

This is my understanding of it however I can give you some web links that can help?

[Leae in reply to Anon0121_]

Thankyou. If you send the links I’ll have a look

[Anon0121_ in reply to Leae]

webmd.com/hiv-aids/types-st...

aidsmap.com/about-hiv/hiv-1...

[Leae in reply to Anon0121_]

Honestly the doctor was useless just said they’d book him in for a blood test on Monday and left it at that.

I’m guessing the chances of me having this is fairly high too then 🤦🏽‍♀️🥺

[Anon0121_ in reply to Leae]

That’s so horrible especially when they must know how scared and anxious you must be feeling over it! But I think they just mean that the result was positive as I don’t think either are treated any differently but I may be wrong. Some strains are less transmittable so keep your hopes up and stay positive! I hope it all goes okay!

Also remember that if you do test positive that it doesn’t mean your life is over, there’s so much they can do to help manage it now and also under treatment most people’s viral count gets so low that hiv is undetectable in the body and therefore can’t be passed on further. You can live a normal healthy life with it nowadays so please stay positive

[Leae in reply to Anon0121_]

Thankyou, I’m sure it’ll all be fine. I’ve got a full test bloods; the works on Wednesday so we shall go from there

Thanks for the advice xx

[Galen70 in reply to Leae]

This is all a bit bizarre. When people test for HIV, the result will come back either positive , negative, or rarely indeterminate. Sometimes the test simply fails and needs to be repeated , or rarely in very early infection not all the markers are positive ( yielding an indeterminate result )

HIV 2 is extremely rare outside of some parts of central/west Africa.

A very high proportion of HIV 1 infections in western Europe are clade B and this is the predominant strain in gay and bisexual men.

Where are you getting your sexual health from ? You should be aware retesting within 5 weeks of treatment is not usually recommended due to the possibility of a false positive result . bashhguidelines.org/current...