Aids (question really for someone with aids)?!

Aids (question really for someone with aids)?

What symptoms do you suffer with when having aids?

I don't have HIV or AIDS myself, but I was a support worker for people who had both diseases and so can perhaps help.

HIV and AIDS are two separate things. HIV stands for 'Human Immunodeficiency Virus'., and it infects the cells of living organisms and replicates (make new copies of themselves) within those cells.

HIV has a number of tricks that help it to evade the body's defences, including very rapid mutation. This means that once HIV has taken hold, the immune system can never fully get rid of it.

There isn't any way to tell just by looking if someone's been infected by HIV. In fact a person infected with HIV may look and feel perfectly well for many years and may not know that they are infected. But as the person's immune system weakens they become increasingly vulnerable to illnesses, many of which they would previously have fought off easily.

The only reliable way to tell whether someone has HIV is for them to take a blood test, which can detect infection from a few weeks after the virus first entered the body.

AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is an extremely serious condition, and at this stage the body has very little defence against any sort of infection.

As time goes by, a person who has been infected with HIV is likely to become ill more and more often until, usually several years after infection, they become ill with one of a number of particularly severe illnesses. It is at this point that they are said to have AIDS - when they first become seriously ill, or when the number of immune system cells left in their body drops below a particular point. Different countries have slightly different ways of defining the point at which a person is said to have AIDS rather than HIV.

Without drug treatment, HIV infection usually progresses to AIDS in an average of ten years. This average, though, is based on a person having a reasonable diet. Someone who is malnourished may well progress to AIDS and death more rapidly.

To answer your question - common symptoms of AIDS are as follows: Lack of energy, weight loss, frequent fevers and sweats; a thick, whitish coating of the tongue or mouth (thrush); severe or recurring vaginal yeast infections; frequent infections like herpes zoster; periods of extreme and unexplained fatigue that may be combined with headaches, lightheadedness, and/or dizziness; bruising more easily than normal; long-lasting bouts of diarrhoea; periods of continued, deep, dry coughing; increasing shortness of breath; recurring or unusual skin rashes; severe numbness or pain in the hands or feet, the loss of muscle control and reflex, paralysis or loss of muscular strength; an altered state of consciousness, personality change, or mental deterioration.