HIV Seroconversion Syndrome is also known as acute HIV infection or primary HIV infection.  The Seroconversion Syndrome is caused by HIV which slowly destroys the human immune system making the patients vulnerable to many other diseases.  The blood has very high amount of HIV within some days of contracting HIV. Many people suffer from flu like illness which is the first stage of the infection. This stage is called acute HIV infection or HIV Seroconversion Syndrome. Some times the stage is also called primary HIV infection. More than 50% of the people don’t notice the symptoms which generally occur within 4 weeks of getting the virus.

Symptoms of acute HIV infection:

Many people don’t experience any symptoms and mostly people ignore the tell tale symptoms. It can resemble infectious monocleosis or flu so remains unsuspected. Some of the common symptoms are:

  • Fatigue
  • Decreased appetite
  • Headache
  • Fever
  • Malaise
  • Swollen lymph nodes and glands
  • Muscle pain and stiffness
  • Rash
  • Sore throat
  • Mouth ulcers and lesions

These symptoms may last for a few days and then they subside. As the symptoms go away after a few days, people forget about them and it is only later that they come to know about the HIV infection.

Testing for HIV Seroconversion Syndrome:

If the patient is tested very soon after being infected by HIV, the result of the blood test will be negative. It may take at least eight weeks for the antibodies to be produced to fight HIV so before that the blood test for antibodies will be negative. But if viral load test is taken then it is easy to find very high viral load in the blood during the primary HIV infection stage. If the HIV antibody test is negative and the viral load test is positive, it indicates a recent infection whereas if both are positive then the infection is at least four to six months old.

Risks of HIV Seroconversion Syndrome:

There are two major risks involved in acute HIV infection. One is the immune damage risk as 60% of the CD4 cells are infected during this stage. The thymus gland reduces producing the CD4 cell to replace the lost cells. The intestine lining gets damaged during this stage which results in vomiting and diarrhea. The second risk is infecting others. During this stage the risk of infecting others is 20 times more than the long term infection.

Treatment of HIV Seroconversion Syndrome:

The use of antiretroviral drugs is the most recommended treatment at this stage. But there are many pros and cons so it is important to check the requirement of the treatment. The treatment will be more effective if it is started when the immune system begins to get damage.

The bottom-line of the disease is that it is very hard to identify the people suffering with HIV Seroconversion syndrome as the symptoms are confusing. Thus one must be very careful if one has come in contact with other HIV patient recently.

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