A 37 year old male known to be HIV positive for the past 6 years, with risk factor of homosexuality, sees his physician because of persistent diarrhea for the past two months along with persistent fever. On physical examination, he is found to have generalized lymphadenopathy, oral thrush, and grouped vesicles on the skin of the trunk in a dermatomal distribution.
Patients remain asymptomatic for years.
They may not even know they are infected and can pass the virus on to others. It is important for physicians to take sexual histories, recognize risk factors, and do HIV testing where appropriate to identify infected persons. In this way, the AIDS epidemic can be reduced in scope and infected persons can be followed and treated appropriately. It takes 8 to 10 years, on average, to develop clinical AIDS, though in some persons AIDS may develop in a shorter time, and other persons may survive much longer.