Symptoms and phases of HIV infection & Aids

HIV/Aids is often called the "silent epidemic" due to its very long incubation period - meaning that a person can be infected for many years without showing any symptoms. An HIV positive person may not even know that he or she is infected and unknowingly also infect other people through unprotected sexual intercourse.

Phases of infection:

Although HIV-infection can theoretically be divided into different phases, it is important to note that HIV-infection cannot in practice be precisely demarcated into separate and distinct phases with easily identifiable boundaries. The health of the HIV positive person will depend on the health of his or her immune system (on CD4 cell count and viral load in the blood, as well as on the exposure to infections and diseases in the environment).

HIV/Aids is seen as a chronic disease nowadays, because HIV positive people can live with the infection for many years if they look after their immune systems. Especially antiretroviral medication made it possible for many individuals who have been very sick with HIV/Aids, to become fully functioning again - with a low, or even undetectable viral load.

It is also not possible to say exactly what symptoms and diseases will be associated with HIV-infection in a specific person. Because of the unique way in which HIV attacks and disarms the immune system, all kinds of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses and cancers are able to invade the body. That is the reason why we talk about Aids as a syndrome - a collection of many illnesses and infections.

HIV-infection can, however, theoretically be divided into the following phases or stages:

1. The primary HIV infection phase (or acute sero-conversion illness). Graphic of HIV symptoms: Phase 1 (sero-conversion)
   
2. The asymptomatic latent phase. Graphic of HIV symptoms: Phase 2
   
3. The minor symptomatic phase. Graphic of HIV symptoms: Phase 3
   
4. The major symptomatic phase and opportunistic diseases.Graphic of HIV symptoms: Phase 4, and How to recognise Phase 4.
   
5. AIDS-defining conditions: the severe symptomatic phase. Graphic of HIV symptoms: Phase 5, and How to recognise Phase 5.
   

1. The primary HIV infection phase (or acute sero-conversion illness)Graphic, Phase 1.

The acute phase of HIV infection (also called acute sero-conversion illness) begins as soon as sero-conversion has taken place. Sero-conversion means the point in time when a person's HIV status converts or changes from being HIV negative to HIV positive. This also usually coincides with the time when an HIV antibody test will show that a person is HIV positive.

Sero-conversion usually occurs four to eight weeks after an individual has been infected with the HI virus. About 30%-60% of people infected with HIV develop flu-like symptoms such as sore throat, headache, mild fever, fatigue, muscle and joint pains, swelling of the lymph nodes, rash, and (occasionally) oral ulcers. These symptoms usually last from between one and two weeks.