The incubation period of AIDS

When talking about AIDS, many people will have an inexplicable sense of fear. Indeed, because AIDS is a disease recognized by modern people as temporarily incurable, and AIDS is highly contagious, it is actually mainly transmitted through the AIDS virus. The HIV virus mainly exists in human blood, semen, and wound exudates. If we come into contact with these secretions of AIDS patients, we will be infected with AIDS to a high extent.

Patients infected with AIDS will not have any special symptoms in the early stages of infection. Why? Mainly because the incubation period of AIDS is very long. What is the incubation period? In fact, it takes a long time for an AIDS patient to feel death. Let us explain it in detail below.

1. Acute infection period: It usually occurs 2-6 weeks after infection. The symptoms are similar to those of a cold and can heal quickly. HIV antigens can be detected during this period, but HIV antibodies cannot be detected.

2. Asymptomatic infection period (also called incubation period or window period): refers to the period from when the HIV enters the human body to when sufficient amounts of HIV antibodies are produced in the blood to be detected by testing methods. During this period, although HIV antibodies cannot be detected, HIV is already present in the body and infected people during this period are still contagious. The length of the incubation period varies greatly from individual to individual, ranging from less than a year to more than 15 years, with an average of 5-7 years.

3. AIDS initiation stage: When the immune system of an HIV-infected person is severely damaged and cannot maintain the minimum disease resistance, he or she will develop a variety of difficult-to-cure symptoms and become an AIDS patient.

From the above we can understand that because AIDS has a long incubation period, it is difficult to prevent AIDS from the source, so we must prevent AIDS infection by controlling its transmission route. Prevent blood transmission. Stay away from drugs, resist drugs, and avoid the spread of drugs caused by sharing syringes during drug injection. Prevent transmission through sexual contact. Keep yourself clean, practice safe sex, use condoms correctly, and go to a standardized hospital for examination and treatment as soon as possible if you have a sexually transmitted disease.