Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks the immune system, reducing its ability to fight off viruses, bacteria or diseases. HIV is usually contracted through sexual contact, but it can also be transmitted through contact with infected blood, sharing hypodermic needles or through childbirth if the mother is infected. Although there is no current cure for HIV, knowing the signs and symptoms can help you to seek diagnose or treatment in the earlier stage before the disease progresses.
Dormancy
One of the difficult parts of contracting HIV is that symptoms can lie dormant for a number of months, even years. Depending on your overall health and lifestyle before contact, it takes longer for symptoms to appear.
Early HIV Symptoms
Early symptoms can show up within a few months or well into a year after initial contact. Early symptoms are generally flu-like in nature. You may experience a fever, headaches, nausea, vomiting, sore throat or fatigue and exhaustion. Because these symptoms are so common and can occur with other illnesses, it can be difficult to differentiate them. After conventional treatment of these symptoms for approximately a week, symptoms associated with HIV remain. If you have any of these symptoms for a week or longer, contact your physician and schedule a visit.
Mid to Late Symptoms
Mid to late HIV symptoms can show up between five and eight years after contact. At this point, the body's defenses are depleted and struggling to support normal biological processes. You may experience diarrhea, weight loss, fever, a persistent cough, shortness of breath and swollen lymph nodes. If you have been formally diagnosed, your doctor will monitor your CD4 lymphocytes, also known as T cells. As your symptoms become more severe, your T cells continue to decrease.
Late Symptoms
Late symptoms usually occur 10 or more years after initial contact. They're a direct result of your failing immune system. You may contract other viruses, such as pneumonia, and your T cell count can be 200 or less. Episodic symptoms include night sweats, chills, a fever, a chronic cough, shortness of breath, chronic diarrhea, white spots on the tongue or mouth, loss of vision or blurred vision and rapid weight loss.
