HIV Symptoms After 2 Weeks

Since a person enters an early stage of HIV disease, his body contains a large amount of the HIV virus. Therefore, you will easily transmit the HIV virus to others. Early symptoms of HIV infection usually occur between 2-4 weeks after the initial infection. Viral proliferation occurs quickly and uncontrollably in your early weeks of contracting HIV.

According to the University of California, the initial symptoms of HIV usually resemble those of the flu - fever, headache and sore throat. These symptoms are the natural response of the immune system when fighting viral infections that enter the body. Unfortunately, the immune system is not strong enough to kill the HIV virus.

Some sufferers also experience rashes in several parts of the body to experience swollen lymph nodes. The most easily observed is a lump in the neck just below the jaw. However, some other sufferers do not even experience symptoms or only mild symptoms so they are often ignored.

After the initial stage has passed, you will experience a long wait to develop advanced symptoms. In this phase, the HIV virus remains active in the body but shows no symptoms or is only mild. This stage is also called the asymptomatic stage, which means without symptoms.

For people who do not take any HIV drugs, the clinical latent stage lasts about 10 years to show symptoms of advanced HIV infection. Although secretly without symptoms, the HIV virus actually attacks immune cells to develop further complications.

Once symptoms appear, you will experience several health problems at once. For example diarrhea, shortness of breath, cough, drastic weight loss, and fever. You can also experience swollen lymph nodes as a continuation of the initial stage. However, the cause of these symptoms is not known with certainty, whether it is caused by HIV or due to a mild infection due to erosion of the immune system.

Symptoms of an advanced stage of HIV are the peak at which the immune system is weakened or totally damaged by the HIV virus. In this phase, the patient's CD4 cell count drops dramatically, to below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. In fact, healthy people have a CD4 cell count of about 500 to 1,600 cells per cubic millimeter of blood.

This stage can take up to 10 years or more to develop opportunistic infections. Opportunistic infections are a form of HIV complications caused by fungus or bacteria that take advantage of a weak immune system. A weak or damaged immune system will make people with HIV / AIDS (PLWHA) vulnerable to pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, and tuberculosis (TB). This collection of diseases indicates that the HIV virus has developed into AIDS.

Symptoms of HIV that appear in the later stages include excessive sweating at night, fever of more than 38 degrees Celsius for one or more weeks, abnormal spots on the tongue or mouth, chronic diarrhea, and visual impairment.

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