Symptoms:The symptoms of HIV vary depending on the stage of infection. Though people living with HIV tend to be most infectious in the first few months, many are unaware of their status until later stages. The first few weeks after initial infection, individuals may experience no symptoms or an influenza-like illness including fever, headache, rash or sore throat.
As the infection progressively weakens the immune system, an individual can develop other signs and symptoms, such as swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, fever, diarrhea and cough. Without treatment, they could also develop severe illnesses such as tuberculosis, cryptococcal meningitis, cancers and other diseases.
Treatment:Is there a cure for HIV and AIDS?There are a number of medications used to treat infections associated with AIDS; they also act to prevent viral replication. They don't cure HIV infection; rather they delay the onset of symptoms of AIDS and death.
The focus now is on combination of drugs including new drugs called protease inhibitors which makes treatment very expensive, and the current policy of the World Health Organization (WHO) doesn't recommend using anti-retroviral drugs. Instead it calls for strengthening clinical therapeutic management of opportunistic infection associated with HIV such as: tuberculosis, diarrhea, and welfare programs that have shown the best results to improve the quality of life and prolong the survival of people living with HIV AIDS.
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