Early HIV Symptoms
Think about it! AIDS is one of the scariest diseases in the entire world at present. The disease is impossible to cure and can only be controlled in the human body. The disease has been around now several years now and there is still no hope of a cure on the horizon!
Millions of people all over the world are infected almost every minute and millions more who are infected wait in breathless hope of a miracle cure!
But if you are not one of them then please take the time to go through commonly seen early symptoms of HIV AIDS
What is HIV AIDS?
AIDS is caused by the HIV virus that passes from body to body through infected body fluids. This can be through semen, or blood etc. Once the HIV virus enters the body, the infected patient is called as HIV positive. The HIV virus attacks the human immune system and specifically the CD4 lymphocyte that is responsible for body defense. In our body we have a finite number of these CD4 lymphocytes (about a 1000) which attack and kill attacking viruses. But the HIV virus targets these cells and uses them to build carbon copies of it. In the process, normal healthy CD4 lymphocytes are completely destroyed. Eventually there comes a day when all the CD4 lymphocytes are destroyed, the body has no defense and the infected body is filled with HIV viruses. When this happens the entire body is susceptible to infections and eventually it fails. This is now called as full-blown AIDS.
The main difference between HIV and AIDS!
HIV is the causative virus while AIDS is the full-blown condition where the immune system is almost non-existent. The HIV positive stage can be controlled to prevent it from crossing over to the active AIDS stage with the help of anti-viral medication. But most often patients do cross over from HIV to AIDS in about 8-10 years. The exact time period may vary upon many different lifestyle conditions but a person is said to be affected with AIDS of the CD4 count falls below 200. (healthy person has about 1000 CD4+T cells).
There are more than 10-12 conditions associated with AIDS, and if any 1 of these is found, the person is said to be infected by AIDS.
Symptoms of HIV And AIDS
People infected with HIV show some symptoms for a few years, but during asymptomatic period, HIV is multiplying fast, infecting and killing cells in immune system. When the immune system weakens, the symptoms begin to emerge prominently. It is quite important that an infected person diagnoses these early HIV symptoms so that the treatment can be started early.
The early HIV symptoms to watch out for in 2-4 weeks of infection are-
1. Rash and red patches all over the body
2. Frequent unexplained headaches
3. Unexpected loss of hunger
4. Enlarged lymph glands for more than three months.
5. Fatigue and aching joints for no reason at all
Other common Symptoms of HIV infection that crop up later on are-
1. Persistently enlarged lymph nodes which are painful and cannot be treated
2. Sudden loss of weight for no reason at all
3. Night sweating with cramps and fever
4. Persistent vomiting and diarrhea not due to food and digestion problems
5. Difficulty in focusing with persistent headaches.
6. Genital dryness and frequent STDs
7. Frequent oral, skin and genital infections
8. Kaposi s sarcoma and other types of cancers
9. Opportunistic infections not commonly seen in humans
10. Neurological symptoms of short term memory loss, senility and eventual comas
Also, please note that if your are diagnosed HIV positive, do not consider this as your death sentence as medicine and research has developed ten times over the decade and people with HIV live up to 10 years and sometimes even more. Learn to accept the disease as part of your life and carry on. Read my article Living with HIV for more inspiration