Symptoms

HIV

Symptoms of HIV

  • If you just got HIV, you could have symptoms like those of the flu
  • This is called an acute (or early-stage) HIV infection
  • For example, you might feel tired or have a fever
  • If you don’t treat your HIV infection, you could develop AIDS over time

Acute HIV

If you just got HIV, you could have symptoms like those of the flu. This is called acute HIV. These symptoms start a few weeks to a couple of months after transmission. 

You could have these symptoms:

  • Feeling tired or sick
  • Fever
  • Rash (bumps on your skin)
  • Throat inflammation
  • Swollen lymph nodes
  • Rapid weight loss
  • Diarrhoea
  • Headaches
  • Night sweats
  • Ulcers in your mouth
  • Ulcers on your penis or anus

These symptoms resemble regular flu or mono. Your GP might not immediately think of HIV. 

During acute HIV, you can infect others easily. Therefore it’s important to get tested quickly if you think you might have HIV.

What happens if you don’t treat acute HIV? 

Do you have HIV? Then you should start taking HIV medication as soon as possible. If you don’t, you could get really sick. You could develop AIDS. This can take 2 years. But it can also take more than 10 years. 

Symptoms of AIDS

HIV makes you very sick. Your body can’t protect itself from diseases very well. You can get seriously sick from infections that a healthy body could handle well.

Symptoms of AIDS can be:

  • Persistent diarrhoea
  • Loss of weight with no apparent reason
  • Fever
  • Shortness of breath
  • Fatigue
  • Night sweats
  • Purple skin lesions (Kaposi’s sarcoma)

Recovering from AIDS

Even if you have AIDS, you can still start taking HIV medication. This can relieve your symptoms. Then you won’t have AIDS anymore, but you will still have HIV.

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