The most telling of all HIV symptoms is the decrease in the CD4 T cell count in your bloodstream. HIV causes a persistent decrease in the number of CD4 T cells in the body and an increase in the viral load associated with HIV. The easiest way to measure how far an HIV infection has progressed is to measure the current T cell count using a blood test.

There are three distinct stages of HIV infection which lead ultimately to AIDS. Acute infection, which is also called primary infection, may last for a few days or even several weeks and can include symptoms like fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, rash, mouth sores and muscle pain. This initial period may feel somewhat like a bad flu, which is why people can have HIV without ever knowing it.

Acute infection will generally occur with the transmission of bodily fluids from an infected person to a person who is not infected. After the initial infection, a period of rapid growth occurs for the virus, causing flu like symptoms in the body. The virus will continue to grow until there are millions of virus particles in every drop of blood.

Unfortunately, many doctors’ offices will even misdiagnose acute HIV infection as a more common illness such as the flu or mono, because of the similarity in symptoms. It’s unfortunate because during acute infection the carrier is much more likely to infect another person with HIV than during latency or after they’ve developed AIDS.

The next stage of HIV infection is called latency. During this period few or no symptoms will be exhibited in the body. This is what makes an HIV infection so dangerous, as the carrier might never even know it’s present until they reach the next stage of infection, AIDS. This period of latency can last anywhere from a few weeks, to a few months or even a few years. Some people have been known to remain in this stage of HIV infection for up to 20 years.

Latency is also known as chronic infection, as immune defense in the body fights back against the assaulting virus. During this stage of HIV infection, the virus will enter into the lymph nodes, which makes them swollen. The swelling of lymph nodes can even persist indefinitely during this stage. During this stage, the carrier of the HIV virus is still infectious, though few HIV symptoms exist to alert them to their own condition.

An HIV infection which leads to AIDS is marked by the drop of CD4 T cells in the body to a point below 200 cells per micro-liter. Once this happens, the immune system of the carrier will be much less effective at fighting back against the HIV virus. It will also be less effective at combating other opportunistic microbes and diseases which can wreak havoc on the body. The first signs a person may have AIDS include weight loss, respiratory infections (sinusitis, bronchitis etc), rashes and ulcer or sores in the mouth.

At this point tumors and other infections will begin to take hold in the carrier’s body as they are no longer being fought by the CD4 T cells. The most common opportunist infections are oral Candida, tuberculosis, herpes, shingles and Epstein Barr virus. Pneumonia caused by fungus is also very common for AIDS patients and typically proves fatal. Not everyone with AIDS will experience these infections, or get tumors, although there are many other infectious diseases that they could fall victim to.

It’s important to get screened regularly to avoid any chance of passing on the HIV virus. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. With no real HIV symptoms other than what you would experience with a common flu, knowing if you are HIV positive is a matter of life or death for you and those you love.