The symptoms of AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, occur when the virus HIV has slowly damaged the immune system over a period of many years. The initial symptoms of an HIV infection are not considered to be AIDS. AIDS is not typically diagnosed until the immune cells of an HIV-infected individual have dropped below a threshold number or the person has developed opportunistic infections.
Loss of Immune Cells
The CD4 count is a measure of how many immune system T cells, also known as CD4 cells, can be seen in one cubic milliliter of blood. The loss of CD4 cells in the body is a defining symptom of AIDS. Someone who has been tested and found to be HIV positive will not be diagnosed with AIDS until the CD4 count falls below 200. This clinical symptom can be measured via blood test.
Chronic Wasting
Many AIDS patients experience severe weight loss, also referred to as chronic wasting, as a result of the infection. This can be the result of a loss of appetite that commonly accompanies the disease or as a complication of other infections that AIDS sufferers are susceptible to. Sometimes nutritional counseling and dietary supplements can help mitigate the effects of chronic wasting in AIDS patients.
Neurological Symptoms
The brain can be affected by AIDS and patients frequently exhibit signs of dementia or memory loss. This may be the result of swelling of the brain that occurs in some AIDS patients. In these people, chronic swelling causes injury to the tissues of the brain, leading to permanent brain damage.
Other Primary Symptoms
The lymph glands in the neck, groin and armpits of AIDS sufferers frequently swell. Excessive fatigue, night sweats and chronic diarrhea may also occur as primary symptoms of AIDS.
Opportunistic Infections
Some of the symptoms of full-blown AIDS come from the disease itself, while others are the product of opportunistic infections, diseases that are able to thrive after the immune system has broken down and can no longer properly fight them off. Many of the opportunistic diseases seen in AIDS patients are rare in healthy individuals. They typically begin to show up when the CD4 count drops below 200. They can include viral infections such as cytomegalovirus and herpes, bacterial infections like tuberculosis and bacterial meningitis and fungal infections including candida, the fungus that causes yeast infections and oral thrush. Parasites can also be opportunistic and AIDS patients may be infected with toxoplasmosis or pneumocystis pneumonia.
Cancers
It is common for people with AIDS to spontaneously develop otherwise rare cancers as a symptom of their disease. Kaposi’s sarcoma and lymphoma are two cancers associated with AIDS.
