The early symptoms of HIV usually appear around 2-4 weeks after the initial infection and are mainly due to viraemia caused by the replication of the virus in the infected person’s body, resulting in damage to the immune system. The majority of patients have mild symptoms that resolve on their own after about 1-3 weeks. The most common symptoms are fever, general malaise, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and swollen lymph nodes. These symptoms are not specific and it is unlikely that you can tell if you are infected with HIV by these symptoms. Therefore, HIV infection can be confirmed by taking a blood test for HIV-RNA or P24 antigen after the onset of these symptoms, if it is positive. Once the infection is confirmed, treatment with antiviral drugs should be administered as soon as possible.