What is the timeline of HIV infection up till full-blown AIDS?

Thank you for the question. For HIV test, there is a window period, which is the period between the time of exposure to the time the test is able to detect the infection. For 4th generation HIV test, the window peroid is 4 weeks and for 3rd generation HIV test, it is 3 months. So with your 2 tests at 1 and 3 months negative, it is highly unlikely that you have caught an HIV infection. In recent HIV infection, the presentation can be very non specific, like any viral infection. However, years later, it can present with recurrent infections or unusual infections due to reduced immunity.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a form of retrovirus that causes HIV infection. Over time it leads to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). AIDS is a condition where due to progressive failure of the immune system, allows life-threatening infections which don’t usually bother a healthy person and cancers to thrive in the body. This is why HIV is one of the infections we humans are most worried about after a sexual encounter. There are a few ways to detect HIV in the blood and each method has different testing window periods.