Usually, a HIV-infected person may not notice any symptoms.
There are 3 distinct phases of clinical HIV infection:
1. Acute seroconversion – May occur within the first few weeks and may take up to several months. Symptoms during this time may include fever, flu-like illness, lymphadenopathy, and rash. These manifestations develop in approximately half of all people infected with HIV.
2. Asymptomatic infection – At this stage, persons infected with HIV exhibit few or no signs or symptoms for a few years to a decade or more.
3. AIDS – When the immune system is damaged enough that significant opportunistic infections begin to develop, the person is considered to have AIDS. A CD4+ T-cell count less than 200/μL is also used as a measure to diagnose AIDS.
These are a list of HIV / AIDS symptoms which may be experienced:
- Tiredness
- Weight loss
- Prolonged fever
- Night sweats
- Skin rash
- Persistent diarrhea
- Lowered resistance to infections
HIV screening is the only way to know if one is infected or not.