HIV: What is HIV Syndrome?

HIV syndrome is a name for the early stage of HIV infection, when a person is first infected with HIV (HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus). When first infected with HIV, a person may not experience any symptoms. However, often a person will develop flu-like symptoms that last several weeks. These include:

If you have recently been infected with HIV, you might not realize it. The person you caught HIV from may not look or feel sick. And the signs and symptoms of HIV infection are similar to other illnesses, such as mononucleosis (mono), tonsillitis or the flu.

When HIV enters your body, it moves inside white blood cells called "CD4 lymphocytes." HIV takes over the CD4 cells and makes billions of copies of itself each day. The new cells spread through your body.

Your body tries to defend itself against HIV by making the following:

So at the time you are infected with HIV, you won't have enough HIV antibodies in your blood to measure, so this test can't give you a diagnosis.

However, when you have HIV syndrome, you do have a high level of HIV RNA in your blood (RNA is the short name for "ribonucleic acid." RNA is made when the virus is active). A test of your "viral load" can measure this. This test tells your doctor the reason that you're feeling sick is because you have HIV syndrome.

After being infected with HIV, your body works hard to attack the virus. With your body fighting, the virus can't make as many copies of itself. Even though you still have HIV, you'll begin to look well and feel well again. The usual blood tests will be normal.

However, during this time, the virus is still attacking your lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are the centers of your body's immune system. The virus may also attack your brain tissue and slowly cause damage there.

Over 10 to 15 years, HIV kills so many CD4 cells that your body can no longer fight off infections. When your CD4 cell count is 200 or less per mL, you have AIDS (a normal count is 600 to 1000). Once you have AIDS (which stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), you can easily catch many serious infections.

Yes. Right now, there is no cure for HIV. Your body can make antibodies and CD4 cells to slow down the progress of HIV, but they can't totally get rid of the virus. In fact, the very act of attacking the HIV infection may wear out your immune system in a short time.

However, treatment with HIV medicines (usually a combination of medicines) can hold down the virus and keep your body's immune system strong for a longer time. That's why the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends early treatment of people with HIV.

Combination drug therapy has changed HIV disease from the leading killer of young adults to a chronic disease that can be controlled for decades. However, even though you can take HIV medicines and feel okay, you could still give the virus to others through unsafe sex or blood exchanges. The medicines don't kill the virus--they just keep your immune system strong enough to prevent AIDS or slow it down.

New medicines are being developed and tested that can be taken less often and that are more powerful in holding back the virus. However, it may be a few years before these new drugs become available.