Do You Know These Early Signs of HIV?

According to the WHO, 38.0 million people in the world were infected with HIV in 2019. That is 0.7% of adults between 15 and 49 years old. But these statistics only take into account

HIV cases that have been confirmed. Many others go unnoticed because people can’t usually recognize the early signs of the infection.

HIV is a virus that damages the immune system, and eventually causes the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). This is a condition in which your body can’t fight infections properly, and it’s fatal without treatment.

The most common way of transmission is through unprotected sexual activity, but HIV can also spread through blood. Pregnant women can transmit it to their babies during gestation, childbirth, or breastfeeding.

HIV is silent at first. It doesn’t show any symptoms until 2-6 weeks after infection. That’s when the earliest stage of the infection, called Acute HIV Infection, usually begins. During this period, the virus can be found in high levels in the blood, for which it’s very contagious.

When your immune system tries to eliminate it, that “battle” inside yourself may produce flu-like symptoms: fever, headaches, swelling in the lymph nodes, chills, night sweats, fatigue, muscle pain, sore throat, or non-pruritic rash (especially around your torso). These symptoms may last for one week or two at most.

After the Acute HIV Infection, the virus goes into clinical latency. This means that it multiplies more slowly inside your body, but it’s still destroying your immune system. In this stage, called Chronic HIV Infection, the virus is still contagious, but it won’t cause any symptoms until stage 3, which is AIDS.

AIDS is an advanced stage of HIV. The survival rate at this point is 3 years (if untreated). AIDS patients have weak immune systems and get several opportunistic infections, as well as shortness of breath, long fevers, diarrhea, weight loss, purpura, fungal infections, hemorrhages, etc.

The complications of HIV can be avoided if the virus is detected before it seriously compromises your health. To obtain a diagnosis, you should get tested regularly, and particularly if you’re pregnant or if you’ve had risk behaviors such as sharing needles or having sex without a condom (condoms are the only contraceptive method that also prevents HIV infection).

The basic HIV test is not very different from other blood tests. A sample of your blood is drawn from your vein and tested for antibodies. Other tests include finger pricking and swabbing of your inner cheeks or your gingiva.

There are also a few licensed home HIV tests that measure the levels of HIV antibodies in the saliva.

Although there’s no cure for HIV, you can keep the virus under control with Antiretroviral Therapy (which uses antiretroviral drugs to reduce the viral load in your blood), and regular health checks (to see the progression of the virus).

Alternative medicine (like homeopathy) and physical therapies (like yoga) can provide you extra relief from some symptoms, but they shouldn’t be performed without the approval of your doctor.