HIV symptoms & treatment

Nurse: Good morning Mr Thomson. Come on in and please have a seat. As you know, your blood test results show that you have HIV. But don’t worry, I’ll explain everything.

Patient: What signs are there to tell that one has HIV? I mean I’ve never felt sick or ill in any way!

Nurse: Actually, most people who have recently been infected with HIV will not have any symptoms right away!

Patient: But then what are these symptoms like?

Nurse: They look like the flu symptoms, and appear within a month or two after exposure to the virus. These include fever, headache, tiredness and enlarged lymph nodes, which are the glands of the immune system. These are easily felt in the neck and groin.

Patient: So, they may come and go, if I get it well!

Nurse: Yes. I mean these symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month, but you should know that they are often mistaken for those of other viral infections.

Patient: And what happens during this period?

Nurse: During the first stage of the incubation period, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in blood, semen, and vaginal fluids.

Patient: And are there any other symptoms that I should be aware of?

Nurse: Yes. More severe HIV symptoms, such as profound and unexplained fatigue, rapid weight loss, frequent fevers, or profuse night sweats, may not appear for ten years or more after HIV first enters the adult body.

Patient: And how can HIV be diagnosed?

Nurse: By bloodtesting for the presence of antibodies, which are the disease-fighting proteins to HIV. It may take HIV antibodies as long as six months after infection to be produced in quantities large enough to show up in standard blood tests. For that reason, make sure to talk to your health-care provider about follow-up testing.

Patient: What could have been the precautions?

Nurse: The only way people can prevent infection is to avoid high-risk behaviors such as un?protected sex or sharing needles, as there is no cure or vaccine to prevent HIV.

Patient: This is scary! No cure and not even a vaccine!

Nurse: Well, the best thing is that everyone aged 15 to 70 should, as healthcare authorities recommend, get tested for HIV as part of the routine health care.

Patient: But again, if there’s no cure nor a vaccine… A horrible life and ensuing death is the unescapable result.

Nurse: We can’t say that. Medicine now has developed drugs to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections and cancers. In combination with early detection through HIV testing, available HIV therapies can greatly extend years and quality of life, and result in a dramatic decrease in AIDS deaths.

Patient: Thank you for being reassuring.