symptoms of aids or hiv?

Not Medical Advice: According to the Mayo Clinic, possible symptoms of primary or acute HIV infection include:

• Fever
• Muscle soreness
• Rash
• Headache
• Sore throat
• Mouth or private area ulcers
• Swollen lymph glands, mainly on the neck
• Joint pain
• Night sweats
• Diarrhea

As the virus continues to increase and destroy immune cells, you might develop mild infections or chronic symptoms such as:

• Fever
• Fatigue
• Swollen lymph nodes — often one of the first signs of HIV infection
• Diarrhea
• Weight loss
• Cough and shortness of breath

If you receive no cure for your HIV infection, the illness typically progresses to AIDS in around 10 years. By the time AIDS progresses, your immune system has been severely damaged, making you vulnerable to opportunistic infections — illnesses that wouldn't trouble a person with a healthy immune system. The signs and symptoms of some of these infections may include:

• Soaking night sweats
• Shaking chills or fever higher than 100 F (38 C) for several weeks
• Cough and shortness of breath
• Chronic diarrhea
• Persistent white spots or unusual lesions on your tongue or in your mouth
• Headaches
• Persistent, unexplained fatigue
• Blurred and distorted vision
• Weight loss
• Skin rashes or bumps

There's no treatment for HIV/AIDS, however a variety of drugs can be used in combination to control the virus. Each of the classes of anti-HIV medications blocks the virus in different ways. It's best to combine at least three medications from two different classes to avoid creating strains of HIV that are immune to single drugs. The classes of anti-HIV medications include:

• Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
• Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)
• Protease inhibitors (PIs)
• Entry or fusion inhibitors
• Integrase inhibitors

In the news: The American South has less than a third of the country’s population, but in 2010 it accounted for nearly half of the thirty-three thousand new AIDS diagnoses nationwide. Learn more at The New Yorker.