Detect Early Symptoms of HIV and AIDS

Medical Video: 5 Common Signs of HIV

Although often paired together, HIV and AIDS are not the same disease. For convenience, HIV is a virus, while AIDS is a condition. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) attacks the body's immune system, especially T cells (CD4 cells) that help work the immune system to fight infection. If left untreated, over time HIV will reduce the number of T cells in the body resulting in sufferers becoming very susceptible to infectious diseases. If later diseases (both infectious and other diseases such as cancer which are also triggered by infection) take over because the body's immune system is already very weak, this phase is called AIDS or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

AIDS is also the final phase of HIV infection. But you need to know, not all people with HIV will suffer from AIDS. AIDS occurs when the CD4 cell level in the body decreases to below 200 cells / mm³, while in normal adults, CD4 cell levels range from 500 cells / mm³ up to 1600 cells / mm³. A person can also be diagnosed with AIDS if he has contracted one or more infectious diseases which are complications of HIV infection.

The initial symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary for each person because symptoms usually arise from infections acquired due to HIV complications.

Early symptoms of HIV infection

If someone is infected with HIV, then he can look fine because HIV does not always cause visible symptoms. But usually, HIV causes symptoms such as flu, approximately within two to four weeks after the individual is infected. These symptoms for example:

Fever
Shivering or feverish
Redness of the skin
Sweating at night
Get sick or feel the muscles ache and ache
Sore throat
Feel tired
Swollen lymph nodes
Mouth sores

Phases that occur when a person is infected with HIV

These symptoms can last for several days to several weeks. This short period is called acute infection. If undergoing a test, HIV infection may not be readable in the results but the patient is in a very infectious state and can spread the virus to other people.

At this stage, our immune system is still able to control viral activity. The immune system cannot completely eliminate HIV but can control HIV infection for a long time. This period is called the latent period or chronic HIV infection. Upon entering the latent period, people with HIV infection may not feel any symptoms. HIV is still active and reproduces very slowly. For those who don't take drugs to control HIV, this latent period can last for 10 years or more but can also be faster. While those who routinely consume drugs can survive a latent period of up to several decades.

Even though it is in a latent period and no symptoms appear, people with HIV can still transmit HIV to others. But those who routinely take drugs and have very low levels of blood viruses tend not to transmit HIV compared to those who don't take the drug.

Early symptoms of AIDS

If someone suffers from HIV infection and does not get treatment, over time the virus will weaken the immune system and HIV develops into AIDS which is the final phase of HIV. Symptoms that appear in HIV can vary in each individual patient, because usually in the AIDS phase, various types of infections begin to attack the patient. Some common symptoms of the AIDS phase are:

Fast and unplanned weight loss
Fluctuating or intermittent fever
Excessive sweating, especially at night
Feeling very tired when not doing heavy activity
Prolonged lymph node swelling (usually the glands in the armpit, groin, or neck)
Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week
Injuries arise in the mouth, anus, and genital organs
Having pneumonia
A reddish, brown, or purplish rash or ulcer under the skin or inside the mouth, nose, and even the eyelids
Nervous disorders such as memory loss, depression, etc.

Each of these symptoms can be different, related to the symptoms of infectious diseases suffered by AIDS sufferers. Types of infectious diseases that are HIV complications such as tuberculosis, herpes simplex, invasive cervical cancer, and encephalopathy.

The diagnosis of HIV and AIDS itself cannot be done simply by checking the symptoms only, it needs further examination to determine whether a person really has HIV AIDS. If the initial symptoms of HIV and AIDS occur to you, do not panic, check with your doctor, especially if you are in a group that is vulnerable to HIV AIDS.

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