How to understand that you are sick with HIV. HIV and AIDS: symptoms and stages of development of a terrible disease. Groups of people with a short incubation period

26.10.2018

AIDS is a terrible disease of our time. It reveals various diseases that take place in the human body. Infections affect the internal organs, weakening the immune system. An accurate diagnosis can be determined by conducting laboratory tests. Doctors - specialists can say for sure whether there is HIV and AIDS in the body or not. But the symptoms, external manifestations are easy to determine on their own.

Symptoms of the disease

Changes in the general condition and appearance of the infected. For others, a sharp decrease in weight becomes noticeable, a sharp manifestation of weakness, a fever that manifests itself without any reason.

Change in stool quality. Persistent diarrhea is a symptom of HIV and AIDS.
The presence of skin diseases. Ulcers, unpleasant spots, purulent blisters are present on the skin. Warts appear on the body, which the patient cannot remove.
Skin diseases of the legs. The fungus of the feet affects the nails, feet and completely lower limbs. Nails change their color, break, change shape.
Increase in colds, pneumonia.
The formation of incomprehensible tumors. The lymph nodes are enlarged. The tumor appears behind the ears, on the neck, under the chin, in the groin, under and above the collarbone.
HIV and AIDS changes the behavior of an infected person due to effects on the brain. The patient cannot control his behavior, concentrate attention. The functionality of the memory is reduced. A person becomes unable to memorize a small simple poem.
Mood change. A person with HIV/AIDS is most often in a bad state of mind, he is dissatisfied with himself and everything around him. All uncomplicated queries become top quality problems.

Any symptom can be considered a signal to see a doctor. Early detection of the stage of the disease is an opportunity to recover. A blood test, its complete analysis will give a diagnosis of the presence of HIV AIDS. Doctors will check the number of cells that saturate the immune system. They will check and be able to determine which disease has settled in the human body.

How to identify AIDS

A change in the level of immunity leads to the manifestation of various diseases. A weakened body cannot resist viruses, which in a healthy state can be easily dealt with even without medical treatment. The situation is changing. Any disease becomes terrible and dangerous.

The moment of infection and the moment of detection are sometimes separated by years, but these years do not pass without a trace for a weakened organism. An accurate diagnosis can be established with the help of laboratory tests, studies and verifications.

What is required to establish an accurate diagnosis:

Detection of the presence of HIV and AIDS antibodies in the body.
Determining the presence of RNA virus.
An accurate count of the number of lymphocytes in the blood, the percentage of their deviation from the norm.

Detection of HIV is a very complex process, it can take several years. The virus is detected in a positively infected HIV after determining the composition of blood components. You need to look closely at various manifestations of the disease, including feces. Prolonged diarrhea, causeless fever, frequent weakness, sudden weight loss can be symptoms of a terrible disease.

The human body ceases to resist disease. The first signs appear on the skin: spots, ulcers, warts. One of the diseases that affects a person is foot fungus.

Decreased immunity leads to frequent colds.
The appearance of diseases in the oral cavity: thrush.
The tongue and inner surfaces of the cheeks are covered with white ulcers or plaques.
Herpes prolapse on the face;
An increase in the number of laryngitis;
The gums begin to bleed, this is especially noticeable in the morning;
Skin effusions of blood, a decrease in coagulability become noticeable.

Possibilities of disease transmission

A disease that has no analogues, complex in course and treatment, can be acquired in various ways:

Sexual intercourse of any type: vaginal, oral, anal.
Infection through the blood of an infected person (syringe, needle, transfusion, contact opened with wounds).
Genital fluids. They are especially dangerous for babies during pregnancy.

Inability to get infected in the following cases:

Simple contact;
Being close to the patient, communicating with him.
Exchanging hugs or crying together;
Through salivation.

You need to know for sure: HIV and AIDS does not bring death. They die from other diseases that the virus allows into the body, and it, weakening, ceases to resist.

Investigation of the disease and search for the possibility of treatment

Medical sources cannot find drugs to treat and destroy the virus that has entered the human body. All experiments, experiments do not give results in the search for a remedy that can drive out the infection. Currently, there are only drugs that slow down the progress of the immune system.

The whole system of therapy is aimed at reducing viral cells. You can delay their development. Medicines help preserve lymphocytes, which support cell resistance to viruses and infections.

Doctors constantly continue to study the nature of HIV AIDS, hoping to find a solution to the problem, they either come close to it, announce the appearance of miraculous remedies, including those made at home, then again roll back far, recognizing the victory of painful viruses over the works of medical geniuses. It can be considered that the main step in the prevention of the disease is the prevention of the receipt of the virus through unknown sexual relations and dirty syringes.

Stages of infection development

In 1989, V.I. Pokrovsky developed a classification of development and divided the course of the disease into stages.

Stage of incubatory manifestation. The settlement of the virus in the body, its reaction to the external manifestation. The duration of the period is not defined, it is individual in each case, it is not repeated and is not analyzed. We can only surmise its duration, it is impossible to determine exactly.
Primary signs of lymphadenopathy. The form of manifestation of symptoms is febrile, acute, asymptomatic.
latent stage. The time of destruction of lymphocytes by the virus. It can last from 2 years to 20 years. It all depends on the body's resistance, the level of its internal security, strength.
Stage of the terminal outcome. The disease wins, the body ceases to defend itself, and all secondary infections become incurable.
The stage of active manifestation of adverse diseases. The stage of a bright manifestation of signs of HIV AIDS.

weight reduction;
Deterioration of the nervous system;
Rise in infectious diseases;
Skin manifestations of infections and viruses;
Damage to the mucous membranes and respiratory organs.

Manifestations of the disease

Signs of HIV become noticeable from the second stage of the disease. They are characterized by an acute form, feverish course, incomprehensible sharp symptoms.

joint pain, headaches, throat infections;
Pain in the eyes, change in vision;
Increased lymph nodes in the neck, groin, armpits;
Intoxication: gag reflex, diarrhea;
Constantly elevated body temperature - 37.5;
Decrease in weight: abrupt and independent of food intake;
Ulcerative manifestations on the skin;
Heavy sensations in bright light, desire for semi-darkness.

It is necessary to be attentive to health, the disease can be avoided or detected in time.

Today, many women and men around the world suffer from HIV and AIDS. HIV is an immunodeficiency virus that results in HIV infection. The last stage of it is AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Unfortunately, at present, the number of HIV-infected men and women is only increasing every day. You have no idea how many lives this disease claims every year. This problem is large-scale, so we decided to talk about it, and we hope that after reading the article you will draw the right conclusions for yourself.

How to understand that you are HIV-positive?

This infection has its own stages of development and symptoms. If at least one of the symptoms takes place, no matter how much a person thinks that he is healthy, we can assume that the infection has overtaken him. We list the stages of the development of the disease and the symptoms at each of them.

1. Incubation period. It can last from 20 to 90 days, very rarely up to a year. At this stage, the virus actively multiplies, but there is no immune system response to it yet, and therefore the patient is unlikely to notice the symptoms. The incubation period ends either with the clinical course of acute HIV infection or with the penetration of HIV antibodies into the blood. The incubation period requires the diagnosis of blood serum in order to detect the virus (DNA particles or antigens).

2. The first manifestations of infection. At the second stage, the body's reactions to the virus are already manifested in the form of an immune reaction (production of specific antibodies) or an acute infection clinic. At this stage, both men and women may have no symptoms at all, and serological diagnosis for antibodies to the virus may be the only sign that the infection is and is developing rapidly. The course of clinical manifestations of the second stage occurs according to the type of acute HIV infection. An acute onset is noted in 60-90% of patients in the first 3 months after infection, often ahead of the formation of the body's defense against HIV, that is, the production of antibodies. Acute infection, which has only the first pathology, proceeds quite differently. These include symptoms such as rashes (polymorphic) on the dermis and visible mucous membranes, pharyngitis, polylymphadenitis, diarrhea, lienal syndrome, fever. In 9-13% of people, after infection, other diseases appear due to weakened immunity, for example, pneumonia, herpes, tonsillitis, and fungal infections.

3. Stage of latency. Occurs after the onset of infection. It is characterized by a constant weakening of the immune system, and consequently an increase in immunodeficiency. At this stage, the death of immune cells occurs. How many of them die, so much the body compensates for their intensive production. During this period, symptoms can detect HIV using serological tests. Enlargement of several lymph nodes (not including inguinal) from different groups, completely unrelated, may be a clinical sign of infection. There are no other pathological changes noted. The duration of the latent stage ranges from two to three years to twenty or more. Its average duration is six to seven years.

4. Secondary diseases. After a certain period of time, infections of bacterial, protozoal, fungal origin occur, again due to the weak immunity of the patient. There are three periods of the course of the stage, depending on secondary diseases:

4A. Weight loss is not more than 10%, there are skin lesions (fungal, viral and bacterial), working capacity is reduced.
4B. Weight loss exceeds 10% of total body weight, fever, prolonged causeless diarrhea, and pulmonary tuberculosis is also possible. The recurrence and progress of infectious diseases "on the face", evidence of infection is hairy leukoplakia and Kaposi's sarcoma.
4B. Patients note general cachexia (extreme exhaustion of the body), if the primary infection did not acquire generalized forms, then the secondary one acquires them. After a certain period of time after infection at this stage, pneumocystis pneumonia, candidiasis of the respiratory tract and esophagus, neurological disorders, disseminated (common) Kaposi's sarcoma, and extrapulmonary tuberculosis are noted.

Secondary diseases that have developed in a patient in the terminal (last) stage of HIV infection become irreversible (AIDS), the patient can be treated as much as necessary, but the treatment will be ineffective, and death occurs after a couple of months. HIV can proceed quite differently, all stages and symptoms do not have to take place - the absence of certain clinical signs, both in women and men, is quite normal. The duration of the disease ranges from one month to twenty years, and depends on the individual clinical course.

Exciter characteristic

This virus belongs to the genus Lentivirus (slow) of the Retroviridae family (retroviruses). HIV is divided into two types: the first is the causative agent of HIV infection, the main cause of the pandemic and the development of AIDS; the second is not common, it can be found only in West Africa. HIV is not a persistent virus. Being outside the body of the carrier, after a certain period of time it quickly dies, it is very sensitive to the effects of temperature (when heated to 80 degrees, it dies after 10 minutes, and reduces its infectious properties already at a temperature of 56 degrees). The virus has a highly variable antigenic structure.

The carrier and the person suffering from AIDS are the source and reservoir of HIV. In high concentrations, the virus can be found in the blood, menstrual flow and the secretion of the vaginal glands of women, male semen. It can be isolated from saliva, milk of nursing women, cerebrospinal fluid and tear secretion, but, unlike the previous ones, these biological fluids do not pose a serious epidemiological hazard. The infection can be transmitted through blood transfusion, sexual intercourse and some other ways. How much time will pass before infection, no one can say for sure, because everything depends on the human body.

Summing up, we can conclude that HIV infection is a disease caused by the immunodeficiency virus of men or women. The infection is characterized by acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, after which a person after a while develops new diseases and exacerbates existing ones, and how long he has to live is unknown. As a result, there is a deep inhibition of the protective properties of the body, and the disease develops into AIDS.

We hope that after reading this, you have understood that HIV and AIDS are terrible diseases, and it is possible to prevent their occurrence in yourself. Think about how many women and men die because of promiscuity, and how many more will die if they do nothing. When this problem is touched, it is too late to fix anything. Fortunately, today there are contraceptives with which you can protect yourself from contracting AIDS.

The entire world has been fighting desperately to defeat acquired immune deficiency syndrome for nearly thirty years, ever since the WHO Global Program on AIDS was established in 1987. At the same time, HIV infection was first diagnosed in a citizen of the USSR. The mere fact that everyone knows about this disease is a definite plus: these days, just like that, without doing anything reprehensible, it is problematic to pick up HIV. Therefore, the first step in getting rid of anxiety is to think and clearly understand whether you are at risk.

Who are you?

Three-quarters of AIDS patients acquire the virus through unprotected sex. Moreover, with homosexual sex, this probability increases many times over. If this does not apply to you, congratulations: you have fallen out of the most risky group.

Drug addicts make up the second largest risk group - from 11% to 17% of patients (in Russia even more). If you have had contact with non-sterile syringes, then it is better not to read the article further, but go get checked right now!

Next come the children of infected parents, the victims of negligent doctors (especially those with hemophilia suffered a lot), and so on. All of the above is definitely not about you? Then you can breathe, if not with relief, then at least with semi-relief.

What happened to you?

As you probably know, AIDS does not destroy a person by itself, but by means of hired killers, that is, it is a variety of extraneous diseases that kill the body, which AIDS has left without immune protection. In this fact lies the main difficulty in recognizing whether you have AIDS or a common cold. Nevertheless, over the years of observation, doctors have identified a number of external manifestations of HIV infection.

In men, some signs of the onset of immunodeficiency are not as obvious as in women, if not completely absent. Yet there are common elements. Try mentally answering the following ten questions:

Do you often have fever attacks?
Are you complaining of a rash, herpes, ringworm?
Do you feel swollen lymph nodes in your neck, or in your armpits or groin?
Constant fatigue, loss of appetite, diarrhea - is that about you?
Is your skin experiencing fungal infections?
Are you complaining about candidiasis (burning of the penis, white coating in the same places, painful sex and urination)?
One of the most obvious faithful companions of AIDS is Kaposi's sarcoma. Do you have strange, even painless tumors?
Do you observe light spots on the tongue, in the oral cavity?
Are you experiencing suspicious, non-diet and exercise related weight loss?
Wounds, even the smallest ones, take too long to heal?

AIDS, caused by HIV infection, is one of the world's most devastating diseases. Why is HIV so serious? The point is the irreversible damage that the virus causes to the immune system of the infected: as the disease develops, the body ceases to resist the infection, everything ends in death.

An additional difficulty is that HIV symptoms, which are often mistaken for signs of a common cold, do not manifest themselves immediately, but only after the end of the incubation period. Among the additional disappointing facts: the minimum infectious dose, relatively simple conditions for infection, frightening symptoms of AIDS.

That is why it is very important to know about the presence of HIV in the body as early as possible. How to understand that you were attacked by a virus? - you ask. In order to "know the enemy by sight", you need to know everything about him, in particular, to understand what happens in the body of the infected person from the moment of infection to the usual completion of a clinical case.

What happens to a person in whose body the human immunodeficiency virus has settled? The first manifestations of HIV occur at a time after the incubation period. This means that at least 3 weeks must pass after infection for a person to notice the first alarming symptoms.

The period of the first manifestations of developing HIV infection falls on the 2nd stage of the disease. With luck, with the onset of early symptoms, the patient will seek medical attention. However, the often observed symptoms are equated to the clinical manifestations of influenza, SARS, mononucleosis. The patient complains of muscle pain, chills, his temperature rises, lymph nodes in the neck increase. The average duration of the stage is 1 year.

This is followed by a latent stage, which is characterized by an asymptomatic course of HIV. However, antibodies to the virus are already present in the patient's blood, and they can be detected during diagnosis.

Generalized lymphadenopathy is the stage of the obvious manifestation of HIV. The patient finds a significant increase in lymph nodes throughout the body (with the exception of the groin). This symptom encourages the patient to visit a doctor, especially if the symptoms of HIV did not show themselves before.

On average, after 3 months, the disease flows into the stage of secondary manifestations. It becomes much more difficult for the patient to cope with the emerging symptoms. During this period, a whole "bouquet" of secondary diseases develops (generalized infections, Kaposi's sarcoma, CNS lesions, etc.), accompanied by appropriate symptoms.

The next step is the thermal stage or AIDS. During this period, there is an exacerbation of all existing ailments, the development of which most often leads to the appearance of acute liver failure. AIDS proceeds in several stages, each of which brings the patient closer to certain death.

Ways of transmission of infection

Before a deep acquaintance with the clinical picture (signs of infection) of HIV, we will touch on the topic of how the virus is transmitted.

People infected with HIV are the main source of infection at any stage of the disease, including the incubation period (when HIV is not yet manifested). The most dangerous periods of the disease in relation to the possibility of transmission of the virus are the end of the incubation period, the time of primary symptoms and the late stage of the disease.

The habitat of the infection is the biological fluids of patients. We are talking about the blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk of the sick person.

Attention! Virus particles can also be contained in other substrates (tear, saliva, sweat). However, the concentration of the virus in them is negligible, so it is practically impossible to get infected in this way.

From the foregoing, we conclude that there are three ways of HIV infection:

Sexual. The virus enters the body as a result of unprotected sex with a sick person.
Parenteral (through the blood).
Vertical. HIV is transmitted to a child during childbirth or through breast milk.

Historical summary: monkeys carrying HIV

Where the human immunodeficiency virus originated, when the first symptoms of the “plague of the 21st century” appeared, and how the chain of HIV infections began is unknown. The general version of scientists and historians is as follows: the initial infection with the human immunodeficiency virus came from chimpanzees. The epidemic has spread around the world after several men killed and ate HIV-infected animals.

The facts about captured sick chimpanzees can testify to the above. Animals in Africa turned out to be carriers of a virus that turned out to be very similar to AIDS.

Features of HIV symptoms: characteristic symptoms in men and women

What specific symptoms in an HIV-infected woman may indicate an illness? How to recognize the "sore"? Primary manifestations are reduced to an increase in body temperature up to 40 degrees a few weeks after infection. Hyperthermia can disturb the patient for 2-10 days.

The list of the very first symptoms of HIV infection is supplemented by signs characteristic of SARS and flu: cough, pain in the larynx. Then the symptoms of intoxication will appear:

weakness;
muscle pain;
migraine;
night sweats.

The first symptoms of HIV appear against the background of an increase in lymph nodes. Inflammatory processes begin to develop. This is evidenced by the cervical nodes, then there will be an increase in the occipital, axillary.

Attention! As a result of HIV infection and the development of the disease, women may experience vomiting and nausea, spasmodic pain syndrome.

The main symptoms of the disease in men are similar to the manifestations of the disease in women. The onset of the course of the disease is accompanied by the appearance of a red rash (colorless spots) on the body. Further, the clinical picture is identical.

Then the disease "gains momentum" there is a lesion of the mucous membrane of the lips, scalp, etc.

In the future, we will talk about the symptoms observed in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The clinical picture of HIV and AIDS (SPD) is different.

The first symptoms of AIDS

Complete confidence in the diagnosis of the patient appears when the first signs of AIDS appear: if the manifestation of the first signs of HIV infection can not be noticed, then the first signs of AIDS will not be ignored. Symptoms of the disease occur during the thermal stage, when the patient's immunity is no longer able to resist the virus.

Are there differences in symptoms between the opposite sexes? The symptoms of the disease are identical. Differences can only be in the first signs of AIDS, which are associated with ailments of the genitourinary system.

Symptoms of the disease will be determined externally and detected in the laboratory. AIDS comes in 4 forms:

Pulmonary (development of pneumocystis pneumonia).
Intestinal (against the background of temperature, diarrhea appears, signs of dehydration).
With skin lesions in women and men (formation of ulcers and erosions that provoke severe pain, discomfort).
with CNS damage.

Diagnostics

Having found out after what time the first signs of AIDS (HIV) appear and how AIDS manifests itself, let's move on to the topic of diagnosis.

With the ingestion of an infectious dose into the blood, in some patients the first symptoms “come” after 3 weeks, in others 3 months after a dangerous contact (with the onset of the production of antibodies to the virus in the cells of the body). However, the only alarm signal may be a significant increase in the lymph nodes (lymph node in the armpit, neck) during the period of generalized lymphadenopathy.

In any case, they resort to one or more diagnostic methods, while determining the level of viral RNA, the degree of damage to leukocytes, lymphocytes - an assessment of the reaction of the patient's body to the virus is made.

Primarily resort to enzyme immunoassay. With repeated positive results, it is necessary that the patient pass another one - immunoblotting.

How quickly AIDS manifests itself: features of the incubation period

Is there an algorithm of actions for recognizing HIV in the early stages? During the incubation period of a sick person, at least for several weeks, it is impossible to determine: there are no signs of AIDS during this period.

How do you know if you are sick or not? The only thing that can be done if infection is suspected is to pay close attention to your health (check the size of the lymph nodes, determine the causes of sudden malaise, sweating in a timely manner, consult a doctor for any form of illness). So, if the experiences were preceded by unprotected sex, it would not be superfluous to go through all the recommended examinations a few weeks after the NPA.

Attention! The infected person is often confused by the "simplicity" of the symptoms. Be vigilant, do not go on about the false harmlessness of the signs!

Medical treatment

What is meant by HIV treatment? Treatment of HIV infection or AIDS treatment includes a set of measures to slow the development of the disease. To cure the disease, even under the control of the best attending physician today is not possible. Treatment of AIDS involves monitoring the immune status, compliance with preventive measures and the treatment of secondary diseases.

The most correct direction of therapy in the case of HIV is taking antiretroviral drugs. It is necessary to be treated with such drugs as Zidovudine, Nevirapine and Didanosine - they are recognized as the most effective.

However, it is worth remembering that drugs do not affect the result - the death of patients with HIV is inevitable today.

Prevention

To prevent the treatment of AIDS, it is necessary to follow simple preventive measures. They are well known and sound like this:

lead an orderly sex life (use a condom);
stop taking drugs;
observe sanitary and hygienic standards during medical and cosmetic manipulations;
consult a doctor in a timely manner with the development of ailments of the genitourinary system (regardless of the time periods of the development of the disease).

How can you not get infected with HIV?

According to statistics, during sexual intercourse without a condom, the risk of contracting the virus is maximum. This is followed by cases of infection through the blood and the vertical route.

You should not take a fanatical position and avoid everyone, being afraid to "pick up an infection." Remember: HIV is not transmitted in everyday life (when shaking hands, hugging, at home), through a kiss, tears and insect bites.

Innocent genital infections

Unprotected intercourse has an alternative unattractive side. We are talking about the possible risk of contracting an innocent sexual infection (chlamydia, mycoplasmosis, genital herpes, thrush, human papillomavirus), the symptoms of which may look like manifestations of HIV. The situation is especially serious in the case of an infection with an HIV-infected person: with a weakened immune system, the course of such ailments is extremely dangerous.

Attention! With unprotected sexual intimacy, the risk of contracting an STD is 50%.

Prevention of opportunistic infections

In the prevention section, it is impossible not to mention measures that prevent the development of opportunistic infections. At the secondary stage of HIV development, due to a strong weakening of the immune system, such ailments often become the patient's "companions". In addition, such infections increase the risk of infection with the virus and the rapid development of AIDS in the patient's body.

There is a clear need for certain preventive measures against opportunistic infections. Among these: the exclusion from the diet of raw meat and fish, regular care of pets, vaccination against infections and the obvious observance of the rules of personal hygiene.