Check the symptoms: Your ‘flu’ might be HIV

Everyone is hyper-health conscious with cold and flu season coming up. When they feel a symptom coming on they head straight to the medicine cabinet or right to the kitchen to fight it off with soup or green tea. Be careful of what you get yourself involved in this winter, because those flu-like symptoms might not be the flu at all. It’s possible that your fever is related to HIV.

After the HIV virus has been in your system for a month or two, it is more than likely that you will experience flu-like symptoms. Roughly 40 to 90 percent of infected people claimed that they experienced such symptoms. This response is known as the acute retroviral syndrome (ARS).

Fever and fatigue are two indicators of ARS. Swollen lymph nodes and a sore throat will accompany these two symptoms as your fever hovers somewhere around 102 degrees. Your body is reacting this way because the virus is multiplying in your bloodstream.

Headaches and muscle aches are also signs that your system is being effected by HIV. These symptoms can easily be confused with other STDs like hepatitis, or other viruses like mononucleosis. Your system responds similarly because in all of those cases, your body is reacting to an infection.

Skin rashes, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea are all signs of HIV. So are weight loss, dry cough, night sweats, nail changes, yeast infections, tingling sensations, menstrual irregularities, difficulty concentrating, and cold sores. If you experience any combination of these illnesses then go and see your doctor. While you’re getting tested for the flu also get tested for mono, HIV and other STDs.

-ynaija