Traditionally, the pathogenesis of AIDS is divided into four stages, namely, acute infection, incubation period, pre-AIDS period, and typical AIDS period.
The acute infection period of AIDS, which refers to 2-4 weeks after the initial HIV infection, may show symptoms such as fever, rash, red spotted rash, muscle pain, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, weakness, diarrhea, etc. The symptoms are mild and last for about half a month and disappear naturally. The incubation period can be 2-10 years or longer. At this stage, the patient’s body has no obvious clinical symptoms, but the virus continues to multiply in the body and is highly contagious. The pre-AIDS period begins to show AIDS-related manifestations, such as persistent swollen lymph nodes, fever, diarrhea, etc. In the typical AIDS stage, the patient’s immune system is severely damaged and various opportunistic infections, malignant tumors, etc. may occur. However, it should be noted that not every infected person will have a complete clinical manifestation of the four stages. The different clinical manifestations of the four periods are a gradual and coherent process, and the latter two stages are often combined because they are clinically difficult to distinguish clearly.
After the appearance of AIDS-related symptoms, it is recommended to go to the hospital’s infection department or dermatologic venereal disease department in a timely manner in order to achieve early detection and treatment.