HIV infection comes in three stages: acute infection, chronic infection, and AIDS. Acute HIV infection is the earliest and shortest stage of HIV infection. Not everyone gets symptoms, but most people come down with a flu-like illness three to six weeks after infection. The symptoms are the same as flu or mononucleosis: fever and fatigue lasting for a week or two. There may or may not be other symptoms: * A blotchy red rash, usually on the upper torso, that does not itch * Headache * Aching muscles * Sore throat * Swollen lymph glands * Diarrhea * Nausea * Vomiting IMPORTANT: If you have been at risk of getting HIV and then come down with these flu-like symptoms, tell a doctor right away. Sensitive new tests can tell whether you have acute HIV infection. Treatment during the acute stage of HIV infection works much, much better than later treatment. Be sure to tell your doctor about your HIV risk. If you don't, you may not get the right tests. Standard HIV tests -- either home tests or lab tests -- won't detect acute HIV infection. The body puts up a terrific struggle against HIV. At the end of this struggle, the body reaches a kind of standoff with the virus. This is chronic HIV infection, which begins three to six months after a person gets HIV. There aren't any symptoms. For most people, this stage of HIV infection lasts about 10 years. Even though there are no symptoms, the immune system slowly runs down. A normal person has a CD4 T-cell count of 450 to 1,200 cells per microliter. When people with HIV have their T-cell counts drop to 200 or lower, they have reached the stage of AIDS. AIDS itself has no symptoms. Because the immune system is devastated, disease symptoms are specific to the kind of infections a person may have. When a person's T cells get very low, doctors prescribe drugs to prevent infections. Sometimes people don't seek medical help until they have AIDS. They may have some of the following symptoms: * Being tired all the time * Swollen lymph nodes in the neck or groin * Fever lasting more than 10 days * Night sweats * Unexplained weight loss * Purplish spots on the skin that don't go away * Shortness of breath * Severe, long-lasting diarrhea * Yeast infections in the mouth, throat, or vagina * Easy bruising or unexplained bleeding
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