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- What is AIDS?
- Symptoms of AIDS
- Causes of AIDS
- Prevention of AIDS
- Risk factors for AIDS
- Complications of AIDS
- When to see a doctor about AIDS
- Diagnosis of AIDS
- Conventional treatment of AIDS
- Alternative/complementary treatment of AIDS
- Living with AIDS
- Caring for someone with AIDS
Initial symptoms
Most people who get infected with HIV may not experience any symptoms when they are first infected. People who do have symptoms, will notice some general flu-like symptoms (within the first month or two after infection) such as:
- Aches
- Enlarged lymph nodes (found in the neck and groin)
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Headache
Most people will not realise they have been infected by HIV and will just think it is another flu infection.
People initially infected with the HIV are extremely infectious at this time, with a great deal of HIV in the genital fluid, so if they have unprotected sex (vaginal, oral, rectal) at this time, they can infect everyone they have sex with!
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Later infection symptoms
As the human immunodeficiency virus infects the body, the immune system will gradually deteriorate and the following symptoms will be displayed:
- Children who grow slowly or get sick a lot
- Cold sores (herpes simplex 1)
- Fatigue
- Frequent fevers (or sweats)
- Genital herpes (herpes simplex 2)
- Loss of appetite
- Shingles
- Short-term memory loss
- Weight loss
- Yeast infections such as candidiasis (in the mouth or genitals)
Full AIDS symptoms
When the infection become AIDS, the following symptoms can be experienced (which are caused by opportunistic infections):
- Cancer - various types of cancers
- Cognitive dysfunction - forgetfulness, confusion
- Coma - usually at the climax of illness, just before death
- Conjunctivitis
- Coughing and shortness of breath
- Difficult or painful swallowing
- Extreme fatigue and lethargy
- Fever
- Nausea, abdominal cramps, and vomiting
- Seizures and lack of coordination
- Severe and persistent diarrhea
- Severe headaches
- Vision loss
- Weight loss
A small number of people have remained asymptomatic (have no symptoms) from HIV or AIDS for a very long time (over 10 years), and this is even without taking any type of medication. Scientists are trying to work out how these people stay healthy and why their immune system is not being depleted by HIV like most other people with HIV, why they are not getting sick and how to replicate their immune system function in other AIDS patients.
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