Is it possible to be HIV+ and show no signs or symptoms of STDs or STIs?? I mean without feeling any different? And how long does it take before you start getting sick from HIV? or experiencing any kind of pain??
you'd have to develop aids from HIV before you'd notice anything. HIV is a catalyst to the formation of aids, and contains no symptoms as far as im aware, only aids shows symptoms, and by the time you have aids, its practicly too late, but it takes a while...
Last I heard, it was 3 months, but you should ask whoever is testing you -- to put it bluntly, less wealthy countries may not have the latest testing technology.
I was thinking it had more to do w/'incubation'(?) rather than test sensitivity(?) but it's 'old' info...
This is just not true Mr. Moose.... I worked as a nurse for about 5 years ...you can DEFINITLY show symptoms of HIV as soon as 6 weeks after exposure.
Hmmmm......possibly the number was correct but w/wrong Time units? Then again I may have the whole damn thing all wrong...
To the original poster (sorry, my response above got cut short), yes you can be HIV+ with no symptoms for many years. The average people tend to mention is around 10 years, but that's just an average -- it's not unheard of (just rare) for a person to go 15 or 16 years with no symptoms. This is a huge part of why the disease has spread so incredibly fast -- people spread it to multiple new partners without even knowing they have it. If you are sexually active, use condoms and get tested regularly -- your best chance to live as long as possible is to get on the drugs available to slow down the progress of the virus as early as possible. There is no cure to date, and the ONLY means of protection are abstinence or condoms. I know there are a whole lot of bullshit stories going around those who have not had the level of education my generation of US residents has had (that includes younger teens in the US as well as people in other countries). Don't believe a bit of it. NOTHING but condoms or abstinence will prevent HIV. With just a quick perusal of the site, http://www.aids.org/factSheets/index.html looks like a decent place to start your education on awareness, prevention, and treatment of HIV. Knowledge is power. HIV is rampant in sub-Saharan Africa (something like 25 million people infected) -- learn to protect yourself, or at least protect loved ones if you're already infected.
3 months is not a reliable test. you need to wait 6+ months to be "sure." a lot of people get a flu-like illness within a couple weeks of contracting HIV. that goes away quickly and then people think they're fine and that they just had a flu-bug. 4, 5,6 or 7 years later they notice something's wrong....
So what about the build-up to those 4, 5, 6 or 7 years?? Is that the period where you start getting STD & STIs. i.e. sores & discharges & stuff??
No, HIV/AIDS will not make you get any STDs out of nowhere. HIV/AIDS affects your immune system (specifically your Helper T cells). With your Helper T cells affected, your body is not able to mount an effective immune response. As a result, people with HIV/AIDS can't fight common infections/viruses that uninfected people can, and then these common infections/viruses can become deadly. What is going on in that 5,6,7 year period is that HIV/AIDS is putting it's mRNA into helper T cells (which actually integrates itself into the Helper T cell's OWN DNA) which causes more HIV/AIDS viruses to be produced, which infect more helper T cells, etc. Basically what is happening is the HIV/AIDS virus is replicating (also mutating) and invading more and more helper T cells and thus taking over more and more of the immune system and making it less and less functional. Therfore, during this period, you could notice yourself getting more infections and the infections lasting longer, etc. An interesting note is that the HIV/AIDS virus has an extremely high mutation rate. This is partly why the virus is so hard to treat/prevent. Even if a successful vaccine were made, it would only protect against one particular HIV/AIDS variety, while there are a virtually unlimited amount of mutations that can occur, all giving a new variety of the virus, which the vaccine would not prevent against. If any of this is unclear of if you have any additional questions just ask me. I am currently doing research on HIV/AIDS treatments, so i do know a bit about the virus and can probably answer any additional questions you have.
HIV comes BEFORE aids...if anyone has rad thru my past posts and read that a friend of mine died the end of January 2006...he died with Hep C & HIV. He was diagnosed with Hep C & HIV in Jan. 2002....so only lived with them for 4 yrs. Yes I have gotten tested about every 6 months every since and I'm ok.
Personally I think you don't die from the virus itself but from the knowledge that you are definately gonna die within +-15 years. I think the virus only completely takes over once the phsycological part is done. BY YOURSELF...
Don't you get realy bad flu symptoms when you are first diagnosed? I thought it was pretty aparent when you catch it.
it's one of those diseases that really is difficult to realize you have it, you dont often show signs of HIV or AIDS well into the time you have it.
only some people get flu symptoms. this typically happens within 1-2 weeks of contracting HIV. rash is common too. but because it is so flu-like, people dismiss it and don't realize that it is actually a reaction to the HIV that they caught when they had dangerous sex 2 weeks earlier...
