HIV Early Detection

HIV early stage is known as acute stage or primary stage of HIV infection. HIV, the acronym is described as Human Immunodeficiency Virus. AIDS that is the advanced or developed stage of HIV is described as Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. The stages or steps of HIV infection can be divided into four stages. They contain early stage or acute stage, asymptomatic stage, asymptomatic stage and AIDS. However, each stage takes certain time to develop. HIV may take eight to ten years to convert into AIDS. After getting infected with HIV, an individual may experience some of the early symptoms of the infection. However, the symptoms may not appear in every person. Some of them can remain symptom-free. It does not mean that they are not HIV infected. In the first stage, a person is most infectious, as HIV exists in large quantity in genital fluids.

HIV has certain strategy, as it does not develop at once, but step by step. The progress of the HIV is gradual and it damages the immune system gradually. It exists in the CD4 cells that are responsible for forming the immune system. HIV attacks the immune system and causes the collapse of the whole immune system in the advanced stage of HIV infection that is AIDS. HIV starts to replicate itself, as it has to damage the CD4 cells. It allows opportunistic infection to attack on the immune system like fungi, cancer, TB etc. It occurs in the third stage of HIV that is symptomatic stage. Opportunistic infections are those infections that take the benefit of the collapsed immune system.

Let us see the information about HIV early stage that is called as acute HIV

Acute HIV infection

The first stage of HIV infection, that is acute HIV, starts soon after the infection of HIV. At the beginning of the stage, immune system does not create antibodies (antibodies are the response of the immune system to HIV). It takes some weeks. Flu-like illness that is what the most common symptom, experienced by an infected person. As it has resemblance to fever, people tend to be careless about it. Moreover, if they take treatment, they may be misdiagnosed with other viral infection. It is the most infectious stage, as HIV appears in large extent in the genital fluids i.e. semen and vaginal fluids. An infected person may transmit the HIV without knowing it. Another thing is that if a person goes through HIV tests, the results can be negative though he/she has infected with HIV. So, it is advisable to go through retesting after some months. ELISA that is a standard blood test can be ps,erformed and after that for confirming, the existence of HIV in blood Western blot test is useful. In the window period, the results of these tests appear to be negative. Sometimes, western blot tests can be followed by viral load tests for detecting the HIV in the window period.

Early symptoms of HIV

The early symptoms contain

• Fever
• Tiredness
• Headache
• Enlarged lymph nodes
• Frequent fevers and sweats
• Pelvic inflammatory disease
• Short-term memory loss
• Constant skin rashes or flaky skin
• Lack of energy
• Constant Oral or vaginal infection

Some common symptoms of HIV that may take eight to ten years to appear

• Excessive fatigue and Weight loss
• Mental symptoms like confusion
• Frequent fevers and Night sweats
• Genital sores and Rash of flaky skin
• Blurred vision

HIV early stage is known as acute stage. It is the first stage of HIV infection. HIV test results appear to be negative in this period.