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Rapid weight loss
Unlike the symptoms above, rapid weight loss is very noticeable, especially when the patient is not doing anything to lose weight. This is called unintended weight loss, and losing more than 5% of your weight in 6 months should prompt you to action if you’re not changing your physical activity levels or dietary patterns.
- High and recurrent fever episodes: These patients have a very high infection rate because the first line of defense against opportunistic infections is not working correctly. Thus, they often have infections and high fever with chills. Some of them wake up at night drenched in sweat or have distressing new infections symptoms every time.
- Weakness and fatigue: The disease creates significant metabolic stress in the body and the sensation of unexplained tiredness and muscle weakness. The immune system tries to fight off disease but has important fails in some cell lines and works double, consuming double resources in the process.
- Chronic diarrhea: These patients are often affected by opportunistic infections in the gastrointestinal tract. Healthy bacteria start to cause gastrointestinal problems, and they could begin experiencing diarrhea for a very long time and without a traceable cause.
- Generalized lymphadenopathy: One or two swollen lymph nodes suddenly turns into many enlarged lymph nodes, especially in individuals infected by mononucleosis and similar diseases. This is generalized lymphadenopathy and can be painful or not.
- Sores in the skin and mucosa: Many patients with AIDS develop sores in the skin and mucosa, especially the mouth’s mucosa. In the mouth, they also start growing white or yellowish patches when infected by candida.
- Pneumonia: Many patients with AIDS are initially diagnosed due to opportunistic infections that cause atypical pneumonia.
- Kaposi’s sarcoma: It is one of the most common types of cancer in patients with HIV. They look like violet, reddened, or brownish patches in the skin.