AIDS/HIV

HIV Conversion Sickness

Originally Published: September 08, 1995

          

 

Alice,
I've heard about conversion sickness and being HIV+ could you tell me more about the symptoms and what exactly it is? -- Unenlightened

 

Dear Unenlightened,
Don't feel like there's something you don't know, as conversion sickness is a bit elusive, and doesn't happen across the board to all HIV+ people. After an uninfected person has contact with an infected person's body fluids (blood, semen or vaginal secretions), the HIV virus may be transmitted from one to the other. During what's called the "window period", which can last from 2 to 9 months, the person who is newly infected with the virus begins to form antibodies to the virus. This process is called seroconversion. It is only after a person has seroconverted that s/he will test positive on an HIV test. During the time when the person's body is forming these antibodies, some people experience a flu-like illness. This is what can be referred to as conversion sickness. The symptoms are very general, and could be attributable to many other causes, like the flu, other more common viruses, tiredness, or depression, etc. The flu-like illness tends to resolve itself in more or less two weeks (not very different from the normal course of the flu). Many who experience this illness do not even think about it in terms of unprotected sex or exposure to contaminated blood that may have occurred in the recent past.

If you have any other questions about HIV or AIDS, you can pick up a free copy of the Essential AIDS Fact Book at the front desk at John Jay. Or you can make an appointment to talk to a GHAP peer counselor by calling 4-2284 and then pressing 4, then 2, then 3 for more information. Off-campus, you can try the National HIV/AIDS Hotline at (800)342-2437--twenty four hours a day.

Alice

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