Symptoms and Signs of HIV infection
AIDS is characterised by a wide spectrum of manifestations that may affect different organs and tissues of the body and range from an asymptomatic infection to life-threatening conditions such as severe infections and cancers. The progression and outcome of HIV /AIDS is influenced by factors such as initial health and nutritional status of the individual, environmental factors, endemic diseases and access to the treatment.
Clinically, the HIV infection can be categorized into three phases:
1. Acute HIV infection/initial phase
2. Clinically latent phase
3. AIDS characterised by certain specific illnesses that include candidiasis, oral hairy leukoplakia, Chronic herpes simplex ulcers, etc.)
First phase
Initially, patients with primary HIV infection may be asymptomatic or may present with nonspecific symptoms that persist for sometime. These symptoms usually begin within 1–4 weeks of infection and lasts for 3–14 days. The common symptoms noted during this acute phase include fever, general body aches, rashes, joint pain, generalized swelling of the lymph nodes (lymphadenopathy) and sometimes aseptic meningitis.
Second phase
During the second phase, the virus is actively multiplying and spreading throughout the body. The affected individual may remain asymptomatic during this phase that may last for several months or years. When symptomatic the commonly noted features include: Clinical features such as chronic fever, persistent cough for more than 1 month, chronic diarrhea, oral candidiasis, severe chronic herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection, >10% loss of body weight within 1 month and tuberculosis (TB).
Third phase
The third phase during which the individual is characterized as having AIDS tends to suffer from a wide variety of infections and conditions due to the weakened immune system. The individual is at high-risk of developing infections such as TB, pneumonia, toxoplasmosis and meningitis. Other infections include herpes zoster, herpes simplex, candidiasis and recurrent Salmonella spp. infections. Some individuals may present with cancers such as Kaposi’s sarcoma.1,2
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Written by: Healthplus24 team
Date last updated: March 23, 2012