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Most people with an advanced HIV infection will also experience severe body
wasting and weight loss.
If you have good reason to believe that you have just put yourself at risk through
intimate contact with someone who is HIV positive, you should seek post exposure
prophylaxis (PEP) from a sexual health clinic or an Accident and Emergency
department of a local hospital. PEP is a course of anti-HIV drugs which may be
successful in preventing HIV infection after HIV has entered the body. 29
If you are HIV positive and you are pregnant, you will need to take special
precautions to guard against your baby becoming HIV positive. 30 You should have
anti-retroviral treatment; you should plan to have a caesarian delivery and you
should not breast-feed.
Syphilis
There were 301 cases of syphilis in 1997, rising to 3,702 in 2006 – an increase of
1,607%.The disease is commonest in gay men. It can be treated with antibiotics.
There may be mild symptoms or none at all. The symptoms of first-stage syphilis
may take up to three months to become evident. They include:
one or more sores (ulcers) on the penis, vulva, vagina, cervix, mouth or
anus, that weep pus; they may last for around six weeks; and /or
small lumps due to swollen glands in the groin.
The symptoms of second stage syphilis usually appear several weeks after any
ulcers have gone. The following symptoms come and go over many years. They
include:
a non-itchy rash of dark patches, often on the palms and soles as well as
other areas;
feeling generally unwell, fever, extreme tiredness and malaise, headaches;
wart-like growths on the genitals;
white patches inside the mouth;
patchy hair loss (alopecia); and
more rarely, major body organs such as the liver, kidneys and brain begin
to be affected.
29
Terrence Higgins Trust (2007) HIV? AIDS? Fifth Edition. E-mail: info@tht.org.uk;
Tel: 020 7812 1600
30
Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynaecologists (2005) HIV in pregnancy: information for you.
Available at www.rcog.org.uk/resources/public/pdf/hivinpregnancy.pdf
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