From Elizabeth Boskey, Ph.D.,
Your Guide to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs).
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A.

Although some people experience a mild flu-like illness around the time of infection, many people with HIV go without symptoms for up to 10 years. Because of this, the only way to know if you are HIV positive is to be tested. Some symptoms associated with advanced HIV infection include:

• purple lesions on the skin
• rapid weight loss
• night sweats and fever
• white spots on the mouth, tongue, or throat
• pneumonia

Because HIV makes you more susceptible to other illness, the symptoms associated with advanced HIV are the symptoms of other diseases – known as opportunistic infections.