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Conditions and Symptoms of HIV

HIV is the precursor to the fatal immune deficiency condition known as AIDS. Understanding the early symptoms of HIV may encourage people that could be at risk to get tested for the condition when these symptoms emerge. Testing for HIV is done using a blood test. Increased risk factors for contracting HIV include people who participate in unprotected sex with multiple partners, intravenous drug users who share needles and people who have received a blood transfusion.

  1. Identification

    • HIV is short for human immunodeficiency virus, and it is the condition that eventually turns into the fatal condition of AIDS. HIV attacks your body's immune system and weakens it over time. Diseases such as pneumonia that the body is normally able to fend off on its own suddenly become potentially fatal as the body is no longer able to fight off any kind of bacterial, viral or fungal infection. The condition turns into AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, when the immune system for the body is completely broken down and the body can no longer defend itself from any disease.

    Effects

    • The initial stages of HIV generate either no symptoms at all, or they generate subtle flu-like symptoms that get progressively worse. These symptoms include a fever, a headache that gets more severe and frequent over time, swollen lymph nodes similar to what would happen if the person was suffering from the flu and in later stages a noticeable red rash.

    Potential

    • HIV develops in the body at a different pace for each person. Once it starts to reach the next level of symptoms it can become much more noticeable. These symptoms include alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea, open wounds and lesions that appear in the red rashes, a cough that gets progressively worse, an unexplained weight loss, a shortness of breath even when the person is at rest and excessive sweating especially at night.

    Types

    • When HIV starts to weaken the immune system, the body becomes susceptible to many different kinds of infections. Some of the more common conditions contracted by people with HIV are tuberculosis, bacterial pneumonia, hepatitis, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and wasting syndrome, which is a significant and rapid weight loss usually of at least 10 percent of the total body weight. As HIV progresses more bacterial, fungal and viral infections may start to set in as the body becomes unable to stop the onset of even the simplest disease.

    Prevention/Solution

    • Over the years there have been strides made in treating HIV. There are now many medications that are able to slow the development of HIV, and give the person suffering the symptoms a chance at a longer and more comfortable life. However, there is no cure for the condition and while this medication can delay HIV from evolving into the fatal condition of AIDS, there is no medication to stop the progression of HIV.

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