How to Know if You Have Aids

Many people who have been infected with HIV are unaware that they accept been infected until years after exposure to the virus. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, of the estimated i.2 meg people living with HIV in the The states, i in 7 exercise non know that they take been infected.

There are a number of early signs and symptoms that may suggest you accept the virus, only the just fashion to know if you take HIV is to get an HIV test.

Verywell / Danie Drankwalter

How HIV Is Transmitted

The first footstep in determining whether you are at risk of HIV is to better sympathize how the virus is transmitted.

HIV thrives in sure body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions, and breast milk. Most people go infected when exposed to HIV through these fluids.

HIV is transmitted through:

Anal sex
Vaginal sex
Shared needles and other drug paraphernalia

HIV can besides be passed from mother to child during childbirth, although this is less common in the adult world due to advances in prevention and handling.

Information technology is important to note that HIV cannot penetrate intact peel. The virus can enter the body either through porous mucosal tissues (such as those in the vagina or rectum), through breaks in vulnerable tissues (which occurs during intercourse), or directly through the bloodstream.

HIV infection can occur with just one exposure, peculiarly in high-take a chance individuals.

By contrast, HIV does non thrive in saliva, urine, tears, or carrion and cannot survive in infectious quantities when exposed to air and environmental conditions.

Early Signs and Symptoms

Many people do not have any symptoms in the early stage of the infection. Nevertheless, after HIV transmission, newly-infected people can develop acute signs and symptoms within days of the exposure, including:

Fever
Chills
Headache
Fatigue
Muscle aches
Sore throat
Swollen lymph nodes
A widespread, non-itchy rash
Diarrhea
Loss of appetite
Night sweats
Genital, anal, or mouth ulcers (a sign of a co-occurring sexually transmitted disease)

This range of symptoms, typically referred to every bit acute retroviral syndrome (ARS), generally begin inside five days of exposure and ordinarily terminal for around fourteen days (although some cases have been known to last for months).

If you have had a recent exposure—such as unprotected sex with a partner of unknown condition—these early on signs and symptoms strongly suggest the demand for immediate HIV testing.

With that said, non everyone experiences ARS in the same way. The symptoms are non-specific and frequently balmy and are sometimes attributed to other weather, such as the mutual cold or simple exhaustion.

According to a 2016 review in Emerging Infectious Diseases, equally many equally 43% of acute HIV infections are entirely asymptomatic (without symptoms).

Less commonly, some people may develop atypical symptoms of HIV soon after exposure, some of which may be serious. These include tonsillitis, meningitis, herpes zoster (shingles), gastric haemorrhage, and esophageal thrush.

HIV Doctor Discussion Guide

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Risk Factors

Even though anyone tin get HIV, some individuals are at higher run a risk than others due to hazard behaviors. By identifying your personal hazard factors for HIV, you can better determine whether you need HIV testing.

Sexual Adventure Factors

Sexual activity is past far the almost mutual manner of HIV manual. With that said, there are variables that can increment or decrease the risk of infection.

These include:

Whether you appoint in anal and vaginal sex
If you lot are the receptive or insertive partner
The viral load of the HIV-positive partner
How many sexual partners yous have
Whether or not at that place is ejaculation during intercourse
Whether or not the male person partner is circumcised
Sexual activity piece of work or having sex with someone who does sex work
Sex with someone who uses 4 drugs

Anal sex poses the highest chance of manual with a per-episode hazard of roughly ane in 70 (1.43%) for the receptive partner and 1 in 161 (0.62%) for the insertive partner. Rectal tissues are especially prone to rupture, assuasive the virus direct access to vulnerable tissues and cells.

Vaginal sexual practice is the second near common manner of transmission with a per-episode hazard of ane in 525 (0.19%) for the female partner and 1 in 1,000 (0.1%) for the male partner.

This translates to a higher rate of new infections amongst women compared to men—18% versus viii%, respectively. Additionally, women accept a one.half dozen-fold greater risk of progression to AIDS.

Intravenous Drug Use

Intravenous drug use is one of the contributing factors to the HIV epidemic in the United States, driven in role by the ongoing opioid crisis. People who inject drugs (PWID) account for around 9% of all new HIV infections, due mainly to the shared use of contaminated syringes and needles.

The risk is even higher if you share needles with someone who has a high viral load, inject in not-individual places (such as in alleys or parks), or apply cocaine and crack cocaine (the drugs of which are associated with drug binges).

Additionally, drug use is associated with sexual practice work (which can lead to HIV exposure), as some people who are addicted to drugs engage in sex work to pay for drugs.

Injecting fissure cocaine or cocaine is associated with a ii.1-fold to 3.vii-fold increased gamble of HIV transmission.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Studies propose that 1 in 7 people with HIV are co-infected with another sexually transmitted illness (STD) at the time of their diagnosis. These co-infections increment vulnerability to HIV.

STD can increase the adventure of HIV transmission in three distinctive ways:

Ulceration: STDs like syphilis and genital herpes manifest with open, ulcerative sores that can permit the HIV virus greater admission to deeper tissues.
Inflammation: STDs, including chlamydia and gonorrhea, provoke inflammation, providing immune cells greater access to the site of exposure. Among these are CD4 T-cells that HIV preferentially targets and infects.

Viral STDs like herpes simplex and homo papillomavirus (HPV) and bacterial STDs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis tin can increase the risk of HIV transmission past up to 300% and 500%, respectively.

HIV Stigma

HIV remains a highly stigmatized disease. Because it is linked to behaviors that many in order disapprove of—including homosexuality, drug utilise, sexually agile youth, and sexually active females—people living with HIV are frequently discriminated against or "blamed" for the spread of infection.

When faced with HIV stigma, some people who might otherwise seek diagnosis and treatment might become into hiding, fearing that the disclosure of their status may cause them impairment, abandonment, loss of income, or worse.

Feeling of shame, guilt, and fear volition ofttimes become internalized, leading to low and an increased risk of isolation, booze and substance abuse, and risk-taking behaviors.

When paired with homophobia, misogyny, and racism, HIV stigma can exponentially increase the risk of infection.

A 2016 written report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that gay and bisexual Blackness men, trapped in the crosshairs of homophobia, racism, and poverty, have a 50/l take chances of getting HIV in a lifetime.

Youth

People nether 25 account for 1 in 5 new HIV infections in the U.s. each yr, with the majority occurring through male-to-male sexual contact. Compared to adults, teens and immature adults with HIV are more likely to remain undiagnosed and untreated and also fail to achieve an undetectable viral load if they are treated.

Young people are as well more likely than older people to exist homeless, uninsured, recently incarcerated, or living in households with low incomes. Those between the ages of 20 and 24 too take the highest rates of STDs overall, increasing the risk of HIV transmission and infection.

High rates of substance abuse also plague younger people, with 2% and 12% of all new infections in young men and young women, respectively, attributed to injecting drug utilise.

HIV Testing

Symptoms and risk factors may point you in the direction of HIV testing, but the lack of symptoms or risk factors should not suggest that you are "in the clear."

There are several different HIV tests to cull from. Some are more accurate than others, while others are faster, more than user-friendly, or offer greater privacy or confidentiality.

The tests tin can either check for antibodies (defensive proteins that the body produces in response to the virus) or antigens (the part of the virus that triggers the allowed response). There are likewise combination tests that detect both HIV antibodies and antigens as well as nucleic acid tests (NAT) that detect the virus.

Dissimilar tests require unlike testing samples. Rapid HIV tests, including calm and mail-in tests, typically crave a saliva sample or driblet of blood. Some in-office tests require a sample of blood.

Although tests that utilize a claret sample are typically more than authentic, newer generation rapid tests are demonstrating higher sensitivity and specificity rates than in years past.

Test Blazon	Sample	Tests for	Turnaround	Accurateness
At-Dwelling Rapid Test	Saliva	HIV antibodies	20 minutes	Specificity: 99% Sensitivity: 92%
Post-In Exam	Fingerprick	HIV antibodies	2-5 days	Specificity: 100% Sensitivity: 83%
In-Office Rapid Test	Saliva, fingerprick	HIV antibodies	twenty minutes	Specificity: 100% Sensitivity: 98%
Standard Antibiotic Examination	Blood sample	HiV antibodies	2-3 days	Specificity: 99% Sensitivity: 95%
Combination Antigen-Antibiotic Test	Claret sample	HIV antibodies and antigens	2-3 days	Specificity: 100% Sensitivity: 99%
Nucleic Acid Examination (NAT)	Blood sample	HIV RNA	2-three days	Specificity: 100% Sensitivity: 99%

As authentic equally these newer-generation tests are, they still have their limitations. Keep in mind that each test has a window period, so information technology is important that you lot understand whether you are having the examination in the correct window to know whether you are infected.

Window Period for HIV Testing

Considering information technology takes time for the body to produce plenty antibodies to achieve detectable levels, you may need to look for three weeks or more than—known every bit the window menses—before an antibody test can render an accurate result. Newer combination tests may be able to cut that fourth dimension to 14 days.

A Word From Verywell

Every bit scary as an HIV exam may seem, the benefits of testing invariably outweigh the risks. Rather than wondering if you "accept it or not," your HIV exam results volition guide your handling and preclude the virus from undermining your immune defenses.

Starting handling early when your allowed system is all the same intact gives you a better chance of having a normal to almost-normal life expectancy. It also slashes the risk of HIV-associated and non-HIV-associated illnesses by more than than one-half compared to starting late.

So dramatic are the benefits of HIV therapy that the U.S. Preventive Services Chore Force currently recommends HIV testing for all Americans fifteen to 65 as part of a routine doctor's visit.

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Source: https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-know-if-you-have-hiv-5097231