Thursday, November 30, 2006

What are the early HIV symptoms?

Many people do not develop any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. This illness may include fever, headache, fatigue, and enlarged lymph nodes (organs of the immune system easily felt in the neck and groin). These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. During this period, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids.

More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period of "asymptomatic" infection is highly individual. Some people may have symptoms in a few months, while others may be symptom-free for more than 10 years. During the asymptomatic period, however, the virus is actively multiplying, infecting, and killing immune system cells.

The effect of HIV is most obvious in the decline in the blood levels of your CD4 T cells (also called T4 cells), the immune system's key infection fighters. At the beginning of its life in the human body, the virus disables or destroys these cells without causing symptoms.

As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications occur. For many people, their first sign of infection is large lymph nodes or “swollen glands” that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include:

lack of energy; weight loss; frequent fevers and sweats; persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal); persistent skin rashes or flaky skin; pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women that does not respond to treatment; or short-term memory loss.

Some people develop frequent and severe herpes infections that cause mouth, genital, or anal sores, or a painful nerve disease called shingles. Children may grow slowly or be sick a lot.

Monday, November 20, 2006

In disturbing news for HIV patients, research now provides visual evidence that the AIDS virus ravages some parts of the brain, even in those who follow powerful drug regimens to remain healthy.

By using high-tech scanners, researchers from two American universities found that the brains of HIV patients were 15 percent thinner in areas that control language, planning and movement. It didn't matter if the patients were on a drug regimen known as HAART, which often allows infected individuals to keep the virus from destroying the immune system.

"The drugs clearly aren't stopping the destruction of brain tissue," said study co-author Paul M. Thompson, a neuroscience researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.

An estimated 40 million people worldwide are infected with the AIDS virus -- about 1 percent of those aged 15 to 49 -- and many don't have access to the antiviral medicines that have turned HIV infection into a largely treatable condition for many in the developed world.

A large percentage of HIV patients suffer from neurological problems; one study put the number at 40 percent.

In the new study, Thompson and his colleagues from UCLA and the University of Pittsburgh used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to create three-dimensional brain images of 40 subjects. Of those, 26 were HIV patients and 14 were healthy "controls."

The thickness of the brain in three areas -- the primary sensor, motor and premotor cortices -- was 15 percent lower in HIV patients. The other three-quarters of the brain were unaffected, the study found.

"Now you can catch AIDS red-handed," said Thompson, who added that the study, appearing in this week's online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was the first of its kind. "You can see the damage it inflicts on the brain in great detail."

What does this mean for HIV patients? They're likely to suffer from brain damage, Thompson said, "although it may not get to the degree where you experience noticeable early HIV symptom."

The next step is to determine how to stop the disease from attacking the brain. But, while the virus can penetrate the brain, drugs typically can't because of a natural barrier that protects the organ from foreign materials in the blood.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Articles about early HIV symptom

Current info about early HIV symptom is not always the easiest thing to locate. Fortunately, this report includes the latest early HIV symptom info available.

Primary HIV infection is the first stage of HIV disease, when the virus first establishes itself in the body. Some researchers use the term acute HIV infection to describe the period of time between when a person is first infected with HIV and when antibodies against the virus are produced by the body (usually 6- 12 weeks).

Some people newly infected with HIV will experience some "flu-like" symptoms. These symptoms, which usually last no more than a few days, might include fevers, chills, night sweats and rashes (not cold-like symptoms). Other people either do not experience "acute infection," or have symptoms so mild that they may not notice them.

You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about early HIV symptom. But don't be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.

Given the general character of the symptoms of acute infection, they can easily have causes other than HIV, such as a flu infection. For example, if you had some risk for HIV a few days ago and are now experiencing flu-like symptoms, it might be possible that HIV is responsible for the symptoms, but it is also possible that you have some other viral infection.


Now might be a good time to write down the main points covered above. The act of putting it down on paper will help you remember what's important about early HIV symptom.