Over 30 million persons worldwide are infected. In the US there are as many as one million persons infected, and there will be an estimated 44,000 new cases of infection this year. Most people think of HIV infection as causing a debilitating disease called AIDS that is not apparent until years after infection. In fact, in untreated persons the average time to the development of AIDS is 10 years or more. However, HIV infection is also associated with an acute illness in most infected persons.
Most persons complain of severe fatigue, but in some there are very few symptoms.
The symptoms usually resolve within one to three weeks, and the infected person can then remain apparently well for an average of 10 years. During this time the virus continues to slowly destroy the immune system. This consists of antibodies that are generated in response to the infection. The standard AIDS test measures these antibodies. Since these take some time to develop, in the very early stages of infection there may be a negative antibody test and yet the person can be infected.