Early symptoms of HIV in men and treatment guidelines

Early symptoms of HIV in men

HIV is one of the primary killer diseases in men. If you know its early symptoms, you can get well-timed treatment and stop spreading the rampant, endemic infections! 

Before tackling treatment guidelines it is important for us to share how to identify symptoms of the HIV virus early in men.

What is HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is well-known to cause Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which the body immune system becomes very weak thereby increasing the risk of obtaining other ailments. It is a sexually transmitted disease; it can be transmitted through unprotected sex, oral sex, sharing contaminated blood and needles. The virus MAY also be transferred from an infected mom to an infant during pregnancy, labor or breastfeeding

What is Clinical Latency Stage? 

Next after the early stage of infection, the HIV disease moves into clinical latency stage, a stage in which individuals with HIV show no symptoms or very minor ones. The medic may possibly prescribe to you antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV treatment which keeps HIV in check. Antiretroviral therapy helps infected individuals to live healthy for several years if not decades. If a patient is not on antiretroviral therapy (ART), this stage i.e clinical latency stage may last about 8 to 10 years. An infected individual can still infect others with HIV during this stage.

HIV and AIDS has no known cure but individuals infected can have a near-normal life expectancy, given they commence treatment before their immune systems is compromised. ARV drugs help suppress and slow down the progression of the symptoms. Studies found that early diagnosis and treatment helps reduce infections between the infected and their partners, WE RECOMMEND YOU GET TESTED TODAY. Symptoms may appear 2-4 weeks after initial infection but at times no signs are produced until late when the body immune system is week.

Numerous hospitals, clinics and community based health centers offer HIV tests services. You can as well order a home HIV test kit from online providers, such as the BioSure HIV Self Test, which saves you the hustle of sending your blood sample to a lab. Basically all you have to do is test yourself and view the outcome in 30 to 45 minutes.

Read Also : New Monthly HIV Injection Set to Replace Daily ARV Drugs

Common Early HIV symptoms in men include:

• Flu or Fever – Fever can raise the body temperature to 100 degrees, accompanied by headache.

• Rash on the arms, legs, face, or belly – It may persist for 7-14 days. In light skinned individuals it appears in red patches, while on dark skin it appears dark brown or black. The affected area becomes dry and itchy.

• Sore throat - Solely this sign does not indicate you are HIV positive. However, in combination with some of the other listed ones it should set an alarm and cause you to go for the HIV test. Sore throats may precede fever.

• Swollen lymph glands - More than half the patients who exhibited early signs on infection have swollen lymph glands. because HIv attacks the body immune system, it is likely to cause the lymph nodes to swell.

• Mouth or genital ulcers

• Awful headache - This is likely to cause low quality life among infected persons.

• Muscle aches and joint pain - They may last for up to 24 hours and then start allover again.

• Nausea and vomiting

• Sweating at night - This is a common symptom among HIV patients. The patient's cloths and bed linen will drench in sweat and get wet, causing them to occasionally wake up and change.

Common Early AIDS symptoms in men include:

• Swollen lymph glands Unusual wounds on the tongue; skin rashes and bumps Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea

• Cough and shortness of breath

• Pneumonia

• Chronic fatigue

• Fever, chills, and sweating at night

• Rapid weight loss

• Blurred or distorted vision

 

Hiv prevention Methods 

You can reduce the possibility of acquiring HIV considerably by doing the following 

• Practice less risky sexual behavior: Oral sex has been proven to be less risky than vaginal sex. Anal sex is highly risky, that’s why Gay people are easily infected by the virus. 

• Using a condom lowers the risk of obtaining HIV. Every time you have sex with a person whose status is unknown or you haven’t verified, please use a condom. 

• Stick to one sexual partner: engaging in sexual activity with more than one person increases your risk of obtaining HIV. 

• Get Informed About the diseased : Obtaining education about HIV risks and how you can reduce it, is the first step to ensuring you keep the virus at bay. 

• Engage a professional doctor on pre-exposure prophylaxis : pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is the new HIV prevention method that enables individuals who haven’t contacted HIV to take a pill daily and reduce the risk of contracting it. 

• If your sexual partner is HIV positive encourage him or her to seek medical attention i.e antiretroviral therapy (ART).