Up to six weeks after getting HIV, as their immune system reacts to the presence of the virus in their body, many people experience a short illness lasting two to four weeks.
This is called a ‘seroconversion illness’ and it can be mild (and may be dismissed as something like flu) or severe enough to put a person in hospital. (However, a blocked or runny nose is not necessarily a symptom of seroconversion illness).
During this time a lot of HIV is present in someone’s body fluids (eg, blood, semen and vaginal secretions). This makes them very infectious and more likely to pass the virus on if they have unprotected sex or share injecting equipment.
Key symptoms of seroconversion illness are:
- fever
- sore throat
- rash on the body.
If someone experiences two of the above within six weeks of unprotected sex or unsafe drug injecting, then it is possible they have HIV. If they have all three there is a strong possibility HIV infection is the cause. But other infections such as glandular fever produce similar symptoms and, although most people get some kind of seroconversion illness after becoming infected, many do not.
It’s important to remember that only an HIV test will show if HIV is the cause of any symptoms. If you have unprotected sex or share injecting equipment but don’t get ill within six weeks, don’t assume you can’t have HIV.
After unprotected sex with a risk of HIV an HIV test is recommended. Tell whoever tests you if you’ve recently taken any risks or had symptoms similar to seroconversion illness, as this will affect the kind of HIV test you should have.