What Are the Signs and Symptoms of HIV/AIDS?

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of HIV/AIDS?

Before a person has developed signs of AIDS, it is impossible to tell whether someone is infected with HIV by just looking at that person. People usually develop an illness with symptoms like those of the flu a few weeks after becoming infected with the virus. They may have a fever, a sore throat, muscle aches, and, sometimes, a measles-like rash. This illness usually goes away after a couple of weeks, and other symptoms may not appear for 5 to 15 years. The incubation (ing-kyoo-BAY-shun) period, or amount of time after infection before symptoms appear, varies from person to person.

When symptoms do appear, they might include dry cough, sweating excessively at night, rapid weight loss, recurring fever, pneumonia, white spots or patches on the tongue or throat, headache, persistent diarrhea (dye-uh-REE-uh), memory loss, depression, extreme tiredness, skin rashes, and swollen lymph nodes ^* .