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Symptoms Caused by HIV

There are three symptomatic stages of HIV: acute infection, symptomatic HIV disease and AIDS. The longest phase, latency, is asymptomatic. Because the first stage of HIV infection has nonspecific symptoms, it is important to know your status through HIV testing.

  1. Acute HIV Infection

    • Some, but not all, sufferers experience a flulike illness within a month after infection that lasts for about two weeks. Symptoms include sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, fever, diarrhea, nausea, muscle aches and skin rash.

    Symptomatic HIV

    • As the immune system begins to fail, but before AIDS develops, symptomatic HIV disease occurs. Symptoms include persistent swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, night sweats, diarrhea, weight loss, fungal infections, skin conditions and breathing problems.

    AIDS Symptoms

    • In addition to opportunistic infections, AIDS leads to neurological conditions like AIDS Dementia Complex, cancers such as Kaposi's sarcoma and lymphomas, and wasting syndrome, a condition of serious weight loss.

    Latency

    • Latency is the longest phase of HIV disease. It comes between acute infection and symptomatic HIV disease and has no symptoms.

    AIDS Diagnosis

    • AIDS is diagnosed in HIV-positive persons when CD4+ cell counts drop below 200 per cubic milliliter of blood, when these cells account for less than 14 percent of immune cells or when an opportunistic infection (one that only occurs in people with severely damaged immune systems) such as thrush or toxoplasmosis occurs.

    Considerations

    • Because the longest stage of HIV infection is asymptomatic, it is important to find out your HIV status through testing. HIVTest.org can help you find a testing center in your area (see Resources).

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