Early Symptoms of HIV - AIDS Infection

Early Symptoms of HIV - AIDS Infection

At Freedomhealth we see very many hundreds of people each year with worries about possible HIV exposure and then possible early HIV symptoms. The web is a fabulous resource but can terrify the life out of people who are perhaps feeling just a little guilty because they have had a sexual encounter they would not usually have, or have had sex with another outside their usual relationship.

In the UK the prevalence of HIV is actually very low indeed with around 60,000 out of 60 million people being infected. That gives a chance of meeting someone with HIV as 1:1000. The risks of infection are very real and the illness is severe and very significant from all sorts of point of view, but looking at it in the cold light of day, the risk of HIV transmission amounts to a chance of less than 1% on any single occasion.

The symptoms of early HIV infection do not always appear. They probably appear to some degree in around 60 - 70 % of people, but very many people remain completely well. If they do appear then it is likely they will develop somewhere between 2 and 12 weeks after infection. Symptoms before this time are very rare indeed. The only sure way to diagnose HIV is with an HIV test.