can increase HIV replication in your body anyway.

For instance, if you are having a herpes attack, with herpes virus actively replicating, your HIV can start replicating more too. Any coexisting infection can do this - just like vaccines do. One study showed that even people with genital warts have more HIV in their semen.
For this reason the increase in unprotected sex and STIs among HIV positive people is a real concern. It could potentially increase the average HIV viral load in the positive population.
However, most studies of the way STIs increase HIV viral load have been done in people not taking HIV treatment. An unanswered question is: will the anti-HIV drugs continue to suppress your HIV if you catch an STI - or will your HIV 'break through' and, because you are on anti-retrovirals, become drug-resistant?
We've devised a study called ESCAPE to look at this possibility. It is taking place at Birmingham's Heartlands Hospital, London's Mortimer Market Clinic and in Brighton. We're looking for 150 HIV positive people, on treatment or off, who either turn up with an STI or are at risk of one - remember STIs don't always cause symptoms. We measure the HIV viral load before and after two weeks of antibiotic treatment and see how the HIV viral load changes.
We've just published a pilot study of 24 patients - with some worrying results. We

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found that if you get an STI and your HIV is not fully suppressed - that means it was higher than 400 copies in blood - you can develop a