Effective treatment has had a dramatic impact on how HIV progresses. Many of us will never be diagnosed with AIDS. Some people who have been living with HIV for years may never have had any HIV-related illnesses. Others who have been diagnosed with AIDS have completely recovered their health.

Stage 1: Becoming HIV antibody positive (seroconversion)

Once HIV starts trying to get inside the cells of our immune system, antibodies are created to fight it off. This process, which can take from a few weeks to three months, is called seroconversion .

During seroconversion, some people feel unwell. They may get flu-like symptoms, such as a fever, sore throat, rash, aching limbs, headache and/or diarrhoea.

Some of us were extremely ill. But some of us felt nothing and had no idea we’d been infected. 

During seroconversion we’re at our most infectious. This is because we’ve got a lot of HIV in our bodies at this time as it goes on the rampage to establish itself and we don’t yet have any antibodies to fight it. 

Stage 2: HIV infection without symptoms

Once seroconversion is over, most people feel fine and don’t experience any symptoms. 

But just because you feel fine at this stage doesn't mean HIV isn't doing anything. The virus is still busy trying to get into your cells to copy itself and move on.

On average, this stage lasts for around eight years, starting from seroconversion. But this really is an average. We’re all different. Some of us may progress much more slowly through this stage; others faster.

During this stage doctors monitor what HIV is doing to our immune system. They can advise us whether we need to begin thinking about starting to take medication. This will probably be when our CD4 count falls to around 350 cells. There's more on this in this section - What’s happening inside me.

Stage 3: HIV infection with symptoms

The longer we live with HIV, the more damage the virus will do to our immune systems. This means there is a greater chance of us getting symptoms caused by HIV-related opportunistic infections.

But, because of treatment, we will all have different experiences. If we’re able to start treatment early and don’t have any difficulties with it, we might never get any symptoms at all. 

Stage 4: Late stage HIV infection

When HIV has caused a lot of damage to our immune systems we might get certain very serious infections and cancers. It’s possible that we’ll be given a diagnosis of AIDS, although not all doctors in the UK use the term AIDS anymore. 

Many of us will never experience late stage HIV infection. It depends on a range of factors, including how we respond to treatment and our lifestyle.