June 27th is "National HIV Testing Day". An estimated 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV, and that number grows by almost 50,000 every year. One in eight people who have HIV don't know it, which means they are not getting the medical care they need to stay healthy and avoid passing HIV to others. the CDC has found that more than 90 percent of new HIV infections in the United States could be prevented by testing and diagnosing people who have HIV and ensuring they receive prompt, ongoing care and treatment.
Many people do not develop symptoms after getting infected, while others have a flu-like illness within several days to weeks after exposure to the virus. They may complain of fever, headache, tiredness and enlarged lymph glands in the neck.Following initial infection, you may have no symptoms. The progression of the disease varies widely among individuals. This state may last from a few months to more than 10 years, during which time the virus continues to multiply actively and infects and kills the cells in the immune system. Once the immune system is weakened, a person infected with HIV may develop some of these symptoms:
- Frequent fevers
- Weight loss
- Lack of energy
- Short-term memory loss
- mouth, genital, or anal sores from herpes infections
For more information, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov/hivtesting.
