Do You Know These Early Signs of HIV?

3 minute read

By Maya Hayes

Do You Know These Early Signs of HIV?Source: Shutterstock

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a virus that damages and can destroy a person’s immune system. According to the World Health Organization, about 38 million people around the world are infected with HIV. But these statistics only take into account cases that have been confirmed.  About 15 percent, or one in seven people, of those who have HIV don’t even know it, often because people don’t recognize the early signs of the infection.

The most common way of transmission is through unprotected sexual activity, but HIV can also spread through blood. Pregnant women can transmit it to their babies during gestation, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

Early Symptoms

HIV doesn’t show any symptoms until 2-6 weeks after infection, which is why many people don’t initially realize they’ve been infected.

Doctors measure HIV and its signs and symptoms in stages. During the earliest stage, called acute HIV infection, the virus can be found in high levels in the blood. It’s extremely contagious at this point.

After infection, the body goes starts trying to fight the virus and many people begin to experience flu-like symptoms that last about two weeks. These symptoms may include:

Many people make the mistake in thinking that the absence of these symptoms indicates that your immune system has won. Unfortunately, it’s not. It simply indicates that HIV has moved onto the next

How HIV Progresses

After the acute HIV infection stage, the virus goes into clinical latency. This means that it multiplies more slowly in your body, but is still destroying the immune system. In this stage, called chronic HIV infection, the virus is contagious, but it won’t cause any symptoms until stage three, which is AIDS. This stage can last 10 years or longer.

In the third stage – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) – the body can’t fight infection properly, and so it’s fatal without treatment. The survival rate at this point is three years, if untreated. AIDS patients experience more severe symptoms, including:

Getting Tested

Some of the complications of HIV can be avoided if the virus is detected before it progresses. You should get tested regularly if you are or have been part of a high-risk group such as those who inject drugs or have unprotected sex (condoms are the only contraceptive method that also prevent HIV infection). Most doctors recommend that every person is tested at least once in their lifetime, regardless of risk factors.

The basic HIV test is not very different from other blood tests. A sample of your blood is drawn from your vein and tested for antibodies. Other tests include finger pricking and swabbing of your inner cheeks or your gingiva.

There are also a few licensed home HIV tests that measure the levels of HIV antibodies in the saliva.

Treatments For HIV

Although there’s no cure for HIV, the virus can be managed with Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), which uses antiretroviral drugs to reduce the viral load in your blood, and frequent health checks to keep on top of the progression of the virus. Patients can still live a long and full life.

ART “cocktails” are one of the best ways to get HIV under control. A mixture of medications helps lower the chance fo the virus becoming resistant to any one single option. A doctor will determine and prescribe the best ARTs for a patient’s stage and situation and adjust treatment as a patient’s T-cell count changes over time,

Alternative medicine and physical therapies can provide some relief from symptoms and can be used in combination with standard medication. Examples of this include

It’s critical to note that alternative medicine isn’t regulated, highly researched, or held to government standards. Before trying any of these options, talk with your doctor.

Maya Hayes

Contributor