considerably higher viral load in your semen. One

guy with 700 copies in his blood had 5,000 in his semen. Another had 40,000 in his blood - but over 100,000 in his semen.
These conditions are ripe for the development of drug-resistant virus in the genital tract. It may be the explanation for the San Francisco study of 370 gay men with diagnosed Aids that showed that those who had unprotected anal sex had an increased risk of death, even on treatment.
GC: Can someone on treatment pass on small amounts of HIV drugs in his body fluids - not necessarily just semen - to an untreated partner, and cause resistance that way?
ST: Well, we know that some anti-HIV drugs like 3TC can reach high levels in semen. But in actual fact the amounts are still extremely low, about 30,000 times less than the amount of 3TC in a standard 150mg dose. So I think this is unlikely. With regards to other body fluids there is simply no data.
GC: Any take-home messages you'd like to add?
ST: Yes, I think till further data becomes available it would be advisable for even couples who are both positive to consider using condoms. And I think at the very least they should have regular checkups for STIs. We recommend that all of our positive patient have a six-monthly sexual health check-up. We now do a blood

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test for syphilis every three months as part of routine blood tests. Since