Symptoms

Primary HIV infection is the first stage of the disease. Some who have just been infected have flu-like symptoms that last a few days and may include:

• Fever
• Chills
• Night sweats
• Rashes
• Sore throat

Most people who are newly HIV infected experience no symptoms. After years of silent infection, as the immune system loses its effectiveness, several complications can occur. One of the first symptoms is enlargement of the lymph nodes lasting more than three months. Swollen glands may be in one or all of the following locations: armpits, groin or neck. Other symptoms appearing months or years after HIV infection include:

• Rapid weight loss
• Dry cough
• Recurring fever or profuse night sweats
• Profound and unexplained fatigue
• Diarrhea that lasts for more than a week
• White spots or unusual blemishes on the tongue, in the mouth or in the throat
• Pneumonia
• Red, brown, pink, or purplish blotches on or under the skin or inside the mouth, nose or eyelids.
• Memory loss, depression and other neurological disorders

Some people develop frequent and severe genital herpes infections or a painful nerve disease called shingles.

AIDS

AIDS might not appear for as long as 10 years after infection, during which time the HIV virus continues to weaken the immune system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a person with AIDS as someone with HIV infection whose CD4-positive T-lymphocyte count is 200 cells/mm³ or less. Healthy adults usually have counts of 1,000 cells/mm³ or more. The clinical definition of AIDS is more complex, because it is based on any of 26 "opportunistic infections," such as pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, aggressive forms of cancer or dementia. One patient with pneumonia may be coughing and have shortness of breath, while another who has an opportunistic infection of the brain may have symptoms of confusion or partial paralysis.

The symptoms of AIDS, therefore, vary depending on an individual's opportunistic infections and the organ system involved, and may include:

• Coughing
• Shortness of breath
• Seizures
• Dementia
• Severe and persistent diarrhea
• Fever
• Vision loss
• Severe headaches
• Wasting
• Extreme fatigue
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Lack of coordination
• Coma
• Abdominal cramps
• Difficult or painful swallowing

More on AIDS/HIV

In the Encyclopedia:

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.