Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - November 30, 2005
Outwardly, the person will not be aware of what is happening. The 'window period' is the time it takes for a person who has been infected to seroconvert (test positive) for HIV antibodies.
Luyirika says the window period can take up to six to eight weeks for antibodies generally appear in healthy persons. During this time
- The body defence cells or CD4 decline as the number of virus per ml of blood (viral load) rises to several millions.
- The person infected is highly infectious although the antibody test will still post negative.
- Your HIV test must be repeated after eight weeks. Luyirika says this can take from 8 weeks to up to 12 years. After the virus has invaded several cells and its copies are in millions, the body reorganises to fight back. The immune system produces antibodies to the virus and these are what HIV antibody tests measure to detect the presence of HIV. Apart from a flu-like illness, the person remains healthy, unaware of the infection. It is called the latent stage during which;
- The body defence cells fight the virus back to low levels
- The person remains normal like uninfected but still infectious
- Some people can live with HIV for up to 20 years without symptoms. After a period of latency, the virus finally weakens the defence and starts to multiply rapidly as the CD4 decrease. When they drop below the critical level, (200 in adults) the person starts developing AIDS related and AIDS defining conditions like Kaposi Sarcoma cancer and severe wasting.
- The only remedy at this stage is ARVs and rehabilitation.
- Eventually, the body is overwhelmed by defencelessness and various opportunistic infections.
- When infections mount, other AIDS related conditions and tumours overwhelm the body and not even ARVs will resuscitate the patient. Death occurs.
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