Warning! 10 Signs You Might Have HIV
These are few ways to know you might have been infected with HIV accodring to Health.com, read more below.
Fever
One of the first signs of ARS can be a mild fever, up to about 102 degrees F.
The fever, if it occurs at all, is often accompanied by other usually mild symptoms, such as fatigue, swollen lymph glands, and a sore throat.
At this point the virus is moving into the blood stream and starting to replicate in large numbers, says Carlos Malvestutto, MD, instructor of infectious diseases and immunology in the department of medicine at NYU School of Medicine in New York City. As that happens, there is an inflammatory reaction by the immune system.
Fatigue
The inflammatory response generated by your besieged immune system also can cause you to feel tired and lethargic. Fatigue can be both an early and later sign of HIV.
Ron, 54, a public relations executive in the Midwest, started to worry about his health when he suddenly got winded just walking. Everything I did, I got out of breath, he says. Before that I had been walking three miles a day.
Ron had tested HIV positive 25 years before feeling so tired; fatigue during acute, or newly contracted, HIV might not be so obvious.
Achy muscles, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes
ARS is often mistaken for the flu, mononucleosis, or another viral infection, even syphilis or hepatitis.
That’s not surprising: Many of the symptoms are the same, including pain in the joints and muscles and swollen lymph glands.
Lymph nodes are part of your body’s immune system and tend to get inflamed when there?s an infection. Many of them are located in your armpit, groin, and neck.
Sore throat and headache
As with other symptoms, sore throat and headache can often be recognized as ARS only in context, Dr. Horberg says.
If you’ve engaged recently in high-risk behavior, an HIV test is a good idea. Get tested for your own sake and for others: HIV is most infectious in the earliest stage.
Keep in mind that the body hasn’t produced antibodies to HIV yet so an antibody test may not pick it up. (It can take a few weeks to a few months for HIV antibodies to show in a blood test). Investigate other test options such as one that detects viral RNA, typically within nine days of infection.
Skin rash
Skin rashes can occur early or late in the course of HIV/AIDS.
For Ron, this was another sign that he might not have run-of-the-mill allergies or a cold.
They were like boils, with some itchy pink areas on my arms, Ron says. The rashes can also appear on the trunk of the body. If [the rashes] aren’t easily explained or easily treated, you should think about having an HIV test, Dr. Horberg says.