HIV infection is an insidious disease, since it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question of how many symptoms of HIV appear. This is due to the fact that the introduction of the virus into the body and its reproduction is usually not accompanied by any signs and the only reliable way to determine the disease is the HIV test.
Manifestation of HIV
HIV infection shows symptoms only in some cases, in the so-called acute stage of the disease. In a large number of people who live with the immunodeficiency virus, the following clinical picture is observed: a few weeks after infection, the first symptoms of HIV infection appear, similar to those of the common cold or flu. For example, HIV-like symptoms of the same type as viruses are elevated body temperature, enlarged lymph nodes, or sore throat. Of course, not all infected people take such symptoms for signs of HIV and the spread of the disease continues. After this, an asymptomatic period begins, the duration of which can be from two months to more than 20 years. At this time the disease goes through two stages:
- persistent;
- latent.
At the end of this period, the main symptoms of HIV among infected people for several years are the progression of infection of various etiologies, as well as the occurrence of malignant tumors.
Typical symptoms of HIV
The most common and typical signs of HIV are:
- weight loss, decreased muscle mass, and more in later stages even dystrophy;
- chronic diarrhea;
- persistent colds;
- severe headaches;
- labored breathing;
- pain in the chest;
- deterioration of vision;
- disease with viral hepatitis;
- various condylomas, papillomas;
- depressive states.
Together with other signs, the symptoms of HIV can also appear in the oral cavity: paradontological diseases, mucosal inflammation, herpes. HIV symptoms can be expressed through a cough, as for the infected are characterized by pulmonary diseases in the form of pneumonia and tuberculosis.
Clinical picture of infection
In some cases, the main symptoms of HIV infection are manifested in patients who inject drugs, because such people are more often sick with hepatitis, pulmonary tuberculosis or bacterial pneumonia. HIV-infected drug addicts also have a triplicate heart valve or septic endocarditis.
Symptoms of HIV on the skin in the form of red spots appear in most infected. In children, the organism to which the infection has penetrated during pregnancy of an infected mother or during childbirth, the disease will progress much faster, while infants are slowed down by the development of the body and serious diseases occur. All this can lead to death.
If you are wondering if there are symptoms in HIV, then you know - there is. But the first signs are implicit and very important in determining the disease is the ability to distinguish them from colds or insignificant
If you have a suspicion that you have been infected, draw your attention even to a seemingly insignificant increase in temperature, like 37.5-38, to unpleasant sensations in the larynx or pain when swallowing, to a slight increase in several lymph nodes (at neck, above the collarbone, under the armpits or in the groin), because their disappearance does not mean your recovery, it's just an indicator that the development of the disease "goes on".