system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Can someone be infected with different strains of the same virus at the same time? How would these strains interact?
gpt
Yes, absolutely! In many cases, the viruses can reassort or trade genes with each other to form different variants. This is especially true in the case of segmented viruses like Influenza or Rotavirus.  For example, you get infected with ABCD and EFGH, then someone catches AFCH from you.  With non-segmented viruses, the reassortment is more rare, and oftentimes one strain will simply outcompete the other(s).  If the strains cause the same symptoms, the presence of two or more strains instead of one does not typically make the symptoms any worse. Two different viruses that cause the same symptoms can sometimes worsen the symptoms, though.