Quote:
Originally posted by Fan1233
How long does it take for HIV to turn into AIDS? let's assume I get infected without realizing it and I don't take the vital treatment. How much will I have left before it transitions into the next stage? Six months? A year? |
There are three stages to HIV infection:
1. Primary infection and seroconversion: just think of the common flu virus infecting your body and you getting the characteristic symptoms of runny nose, sore throat etc. By coincidence with this analogy, Infection with HIV tends to give similar symptoms too. This occurs within weeks 1 to 6 post-exposure.
2. These symptoms then resolve and you are asymptomatic (do not experience) symptoms for several years. But the virus is slowly attacking your CD4 T-Cells and depleting their numbers, while replicating and increasing their own.
3. You then get symptoms again as you begin to develop AIDs (your CD4 count is below <200) - but these tend to be a lot worse and are related to more serious infections as your immune system is now kaput.
The primary infection (seroconversion) occurs within 1-6 weeks and most - but unfortunately not all, people get symptoms. The development of AIDs takes on average 8-10 years, and around 20% in 5.
Bottom line: if in doubt, get it checked out. In most countries, especially the U.K., all it takes is a finger prick and a few days.
As not every case of exposure leads to the initial seroconversion illness and progresses straight into the asymptomatic second stage, you won't know about it until 5-10 years down the line. Even in cases of seroconversion, most people tend to not attribute it to possible exposure, as the symptoms tend to mimic other common infections e.g. common cold, infectious mononucleosis (aka 'mono') and so are dismissed.
