Who knows any symptoms?

does anyone know the symptoms of an HIV positive patient

What are the early symptoms of HIV?

Many people do not develop any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. This illness may include fever, headache, fatigue, and enlarged lymph nodes (organs of the immune system easily felt in the neck and groin). These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. During this period, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids.

More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period of "asymptomatic" infection is highly individual. Some people may have symptoms in a few months, while others may be symptom-free for more than 10 years. During the asymptomatic period, however, the virus is actively multiplying, infecting, and killing immune system cells.

The effect of HIV is most obvious in the decline in the blood levels of your CD4 T cells (also called T4 cells), the immune system's key infection fighters. At the beginning of its life in the human body, the virus disables or destroys these cells without causing symptoms.

As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications occur. For many people, their first sign of infection is large lymph nodes or 鈥渟wollen glands鈥?that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include:

lack of energy;
weight loss;
frequent fevers and sweats;
persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal);
persistent skin rashes or flaky skin;
pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women that does not respond to treatment; or
short-term memory loss.
Some people develop frequent and severe herpes infections that cause mouth, genital, or anal sores, or a painful nerve disease called shingles. Children may grow slowly or be sick a lot.

Your immune system will be weakened severely, so you'll be sick all the time (colds, viruses, etc) you might get strange lesions on your body.

drastic weight loss, sick all the time, tired, some lose ability to walk, and visible sores.

Some people who contract HIV experience very strong symptoms, but others experience none at all. Those who do have symptoms generally experience fever, fatigue, and, often, rash. Other common symptoms can include headache, swollen lymph nodes, and sore throat. These symptoms can occur within days or weeks of the initial exposure to the virus during a period called primary or acute HIV infection.

Because of the nonspecific symptoms associated with primary or acute HIV infection, symptoms are not a reliable way to diagnose HIV infection. Testing for HIV antibodies is the only way to know whether you have been infected; however, the HIV antibody test only works after the infected person's immune system develops antibodies to HIV. During the "window period" between the initial infection and the period in which antibodies are detectable (which can be from 2 weeks to 6 months, but is usually 3 months), standard HIV testing is ineffective.

If you are concerned that you may have recently acquired HIV and have symptoms described above, see a doctor. A doctor or other health care professional can help determine whether you may be infected with HIV or another infection. If HIV infection is suspected, he or she may perform a Polymerase Chain Reaction (commonly called "PCR") test to determine whether HIV is present in the blood.

Once the primary or acute infection is over, most people do not experience any visible symptoms for another 8-10 years. Left untreated, the immune system becomes increasingly weaker and the disease progresses to AIDS. The next symptoms experienced by individuals infected with the virus are often associated with the "opportunistic infections" that target individuals with AIDS such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and toxoplasmosis.


How can I tell if someone else has HIV?

There is no way to know for sure if someone else has HIV. Many people with HIV look perfectly healthy. Other people who are sick with HIV may have symptoms that are identical to other common illnesses. You cannot tell by looking whether someone is HIV positive. The only way to know for sure is if someone tells you. It is important to consider how well you know someone and how much you trust them when talking about sex and HIV.

In the early stages there are not many signs.

Later..
Cramps
Flu
A sticky white foam in your mouth
but they disapper so you might be fooled into thinking you just had a bad cold

in the first little while, there will be no symptoms. if you find out, take the hiv meds. dont' drink or do drugs. stay fit, eat healthy and exercise. that will help for sure. i know people who have HIV, and thats what they do. i've known one of them almost 20 years, and he's as healthy as ever. and above else, if your going to have sex with someone, let them know before hand so they have the choice. and practice safe sex. not saying you are saying your HIV, but when someone asks a question, i answer it like they are asking for themselves. so i personalize it

An HIV positive person can have no symptoms.

An AIDS person has gotten an oportunistic infection, such as Kaposi sarcoma, mouth and oesophagus fungus infection, diarrheas due to cryptococcus, pneumonia due to pneumocystis, etc.

So the symptoms can be many, rashes, masses on skin, fever, abdominal pain, cough...

Most of the symptoms that people have described so far are those of full blown AIDS. A huge percentage of people who have HIV have no idea that they are infected. They may go years with no symptoms, or they may have flu-like symptoms that don't seem to be a cause for concern. HIV, or human immunodefiency virus, is a virus that attacks your body's immune system. AIDS is diagnosed when certain cells in the immune system reach a specific low number. Nobody actually dies from AIDS. They die from a secondary illness which their body can not fight off. Anyone who has ever had unprotected sex or shared needles should be tested, not only so they can begin treatment as early as possible, but also to prevent the spread to other people.

you get weaker everyday... with the simple colds and cough... then gets worse... until your skin gets dark spots all over