Aids/HIV information, Symptoms, treatment

Early Symptoms: Once HIV enters your body — through semen, vaginal secretions, blood, or human breast milk — it generally takes a month or two before creating symptoms, if any (not everyone has symptoms at this stage). These initial symptoms are similar to the flu and can last three to 14 days:
Fever
Chills
Night sweats
Skin rashes
Headache
Malaise
Swollen lymph nodes (immune system organs easily felt in the neck and groin)
General discomfort
Within the several months following HIV infection, you may have repeated episodes of these flu-like symptoms. After that, an average period of five to seven years will pass without another sign of HIV infection — though that delay can range from a few months to more than 10 years. However, even when you don’t have symptoms, the virus is still multiplying in your body, and you can spread it to other people.

Later symptoms (months to years before onset of AIDS)

Symptoms may include:
Fatigue
Mild weight loss
Frequent fevers and sweats
Swollen lymph glands
Persistent yeast infections
Persistent skin rashes
Pelvic inflammatory disease that does not respond to treatment
Short term memory loss
Frequent and severe herpes infections causing mouth, genital or anal sores
Painful nerve disease (shingles)
At this stage, you may have other disorders resulting from HIV infection: severe dermatitis, personality changes, intellectual impairment, peripheral neuritis (inflammation of one or more peripheral nerves), pneumonia, myocarditis (inflammation of the middle muscular layer of the heart wall), nephritis (kidney inflammation), and arthritis.

AIDS

As chronic HIV progresses, the immune system grows weaker and weaker until it can no longer prevent diseases and/or “opportunistic” infections (those that would not usually happen in a person with a normal immune system). These include:
Pneumonia caused by Pneumocystis carinii
HIV infection of the brain (encephalitis with dementia)
Toxoplasmosis of the brain (a protozoan infection)
Cryptococcosis infection (a fungal infection)
HIV wasting syndrome (chronically active HIV infection)
Candida (yeast infections of the vagina, mouth, esophagus, trachea, bronchial tubes, or lungs)
Kaposi’s sarcoma (a form of skin cancer)
Tuberculosis and related infections
Cryptosporidiosis infection of the intestine (a protozoan infection)
Herpes simplex virus infections of mouth, esophagus, and lungs
Lymphoma (a cancer of the immune system)
Cytomegalovirus infections of the retina and other organs
Conditions That May Be Mistaken for HIV and AIDS

HIV and AIDS may involve virtually every organ in the body. Therefore, many conditions can be mistaken for HIV/AIDS, including:
Cancer, especially lymphoma (causing malnutrition or weight loss)
Senile dementia
Gastrointestinal infection (especially parasitic)
Colitis
Inflammatory bowel disease
Depression
How is HIV Diagnosed?

You can get tested for HIV in a number of locations — including public clinics, AIDS organizations, physicians’ offices, and hospitals. Many locations give the test for free. You can choose between anonymous tests, in which you do not give your name to the healthcare provider, or confidential tests, in which you do give your name. Test sites should provide trained counselors who can offer you support and guidance, no matter what the test result.

An HIV test looks for the antibodies your immune system creates in response to the virus. These antibodies may not appear in your blood until three to six months after HIV infection. Therefore, a negative test for HIV does not necessarily mean you aren’t infected. That’s why if you are at risk for HIV infection you should get tested periodically in addition to practicing safer sex at all times.

Two blood tests are used to diagnose HIV:
ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay)
Western Blot test (to confirm a positive ELISA result)
Your doctor may also order the following tests:
Complete blood counts
Routine blood chemistry panel to establish baseline values
Routine blood test for syphilis
Tuberculin skin test
Cervical Pap smear
Blood tests for hepatitis viral infections
Blood tests for toxoplasmosis
Measurement of G-6-PD levels in red blood cells
Specific Tests

T-cell counts

If you test HIV-positive, you should have frequent blood tests to determine the levels of healthy T cells. These cell counts help indicate how quickly the infection is progressing and which course of treatment is best. Normal T-cell count is 800 to 1,300 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. In the first few months after HIV infection, T-cells may decrease to 400 to 650. As infection progresses, T cells drop to a second level of 200 to 499. At this stage you can expect to have late symptoms, although this too is variable. The most life-threatening AIDS illnesses happen when T-cell levels fall below 200.

Viral load

A measurement of HIV viral particles in a sample of blood. Currently, this measurement along with your T-cell count best gauges how your infection is progressing. Your doctor will use these numbers to determine various drug regimens.

Imaging

Your doctor may use chest X-ray or CT (computed tomography) scans to check for pneumonia, tuberculosis, enlarged lymph nodes, or other conditions arising as a result of AIDS.