What is HIV?

HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, infects the human body, attacks immune cells, and weakens the immune system. If left untreated, it can damage your immune cells and lead to AIDS or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
HIV-positive patients are given antiretroviral therapy to control the viral growth. These medications can help prevent AIDS if they are taken in the early stages of HIV infection. However, HIV still cannot be completely cured. If you get HIV, it remains in your body for life. Medications for AIDS-HIV cure help keep the virus at undetectable levels and help you live a long, healthy life.
What causes AIDS-HIV?
It can be transmitted through unprotected sex and sharing needles with a person with HIV. It spreads via body fluids like blood, semen, vaginal fluids, or even breast milk. It can also be transmitted from an HIV-positive mother to the baby during pregnancy.
How is AIDS-HIV diagnosed?
HIV can be diagnosed through antibody and antigen tests. Antigens are the proteins produced by the virus and antibodies are the proteins produced by your immune cells to fight the virus. They can be detected through blood or saliva tests that check viral load (how much virus you have in your body).
When HIV infection progresses into AIDS, it damages your CD4 immune cells. To diagnose AIDS, doctors check the number of CD4 cells in your body. They also check for opportunistic infections like pneumonia or tuberculosis.
What AIDS-HIV treatments are available?
Once you’re diagnosed with HIV, your doctor will immediately start HIV treatment to prevent it from worsening. AIDS-HIV treatment is called antiretroviral therapy. It is a recommended treatment regimen for people with HIV. It involves taking a combination of HIV medications.
This treatment can’t cure HIV. But it helps control the virus and reduces the risk of HIV transmission from one person to another.
Doctors recommend beginning HIV treatment immediately after diagnosis. This is because HIV can progress into AIDS if it is not treated right away.
The following types of HIV medicines are used for treatment:
- Combination medicines containing two or more HIV drugs
- Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)
- Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
- Protease inhibitors
- Integrase strand-transfer inhibitors (INSTIs)
- Fusion inhibitors
- Chemokine receptor antagonist (CCR5)
- CD4 post-attachment inhibitors
- CYP3A enzyme inhibitors
How do HIV medicines control the virus?
HIV medicines prevent the virus from growing and making copies of itself. This decreases the amount of HIV or viral load in the body.
HIV typically attacks CD4 immune cells in your body. If these cells get destroyed, your body can’t fight infections and HIV-related cancers. HIV medicines target the virus and allow the immune system to recover and produce more CD4 cells.
These medicines can’t remove HIV from your body. But they can slow down viral growth and help restore your immune system to fight off infections and diseases. HIV medicines reduce the viral load in the blood to undetectable levels and reduce the risk of HIV transmission through sex.
Is there a permanent AIDS-HIV cure?
As yet, there is no permanent HIV cure. Antiretroviral treatment can effectively control HIV, prevent AIDS, and help people live a healthy life despite the infection. It can make the viral load undetectable but can’t completely cure HIV.
Research is being conducted to find a definitive AIDS-HIV cure. There are two types of HIV cures being researched. One is a functional cure, which reduces the levels of HIV in the body. Antiretroviral therapy is a functional cure, but it needs to be taken throughout life.
Another cure is called a sterilizing cure, which can completely remove HIV from the body. A stem cell transplant is one such treatment. To date, only three patients are known to have been completely cured of HIV through a stem cell transplant. They are as follows:
- The Berlin patient. A patient from Berlin named Timothy Brown is considered to be the first person to be cured of AIDS-HIV. In 2008 He was HIV-positive and underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to treat HIV-related leukemia. He received the transplant from a donor with natural genetic resistance to HIV. After the transplant, Timothy Brown was cured of HIV.
- The London patient. Adam Castillejo, a patient from London, received the same treatment as Timothy Brown. In 2020, 30 months after the treatment, he was free from HIV.
- The American patient. An American female patient with HIV was given a cord blood stem cell transplant for leukemia. In February 2022, she was reported to be completely cured of HIV. On testing, the virus was not detected at all, despite stopping antiretroviral therapy for 14 months.
Stem cell therapy showed promising results in these cases. However, transplants require surgery and can be risky for patients living with HIV.
Ongoing research and potential HIV cures
There is still no universal or permanent cure for HIV. But techniques like gene editing, immune cell modulation, and stem cell transplants are currently being studied to cure HIV. These methods focus on changing and boosting immune cells to fight the virus. Many researchers have also conducted HIV vaccine trials. But more research is required before it can be used to cure HIV.
In the meantime, doctors recommend patients test regularly for HIV to ensure that they don’t have the virus. If you’re HIV-positive, your doctor will ask you to start antiretroviral treatment immediately. For now, it is the best way to control HIV, prevent AIDS, and live a long and healthy life.

SLIDESHOW
A Timeline of the HIV/AIDS Pandemic See SlideshowHealth Solutions From Our Sponsors
Avert: "Is There a Cure for HIV and AIDS?"
CDC: "About HIV," "What is HIV treatment?"
FDA: "HIV and AIDS: Medicines to Help You."
HIV.gov: "What Are HIV and AIDS?"
HIVinfo.NIH.gov: "FDA-Approved HIV Medicines," "HIV Treatment."
NIH: "Researchers document third known case of HIV remission involving stem cell transplant."
Top Does HIV Have a Permanent Cure Related Articles
HIV/AIDS History
Get a historical overview of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from human contraction to the present through this slideshow of pictures.Can I Get HIV From Surfaces?
Studies proved that HIV cannot be transmitted through surfaces such as toilet seats, chairs, doorknobs, drinking glasses and bedsheets. The virus cannot survive outside a human host; hence, transmission through air, water (swimming pools), insect bite or casual contacts such as handshake, hug or touch is not possible.HIV Early Signs and Stages
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) weakens your immune system. Some people with HIV don’t have any symptoms, but those that do may experience mononucleosis-like or flu-like symptoms. There are 3 stages of HIV.HIV/AIDS Myths
What is HIV versus AIDS? What are the symptoms of HIV? Is there an HIV cure? Discover myths and facts about living with HIV/AIDS. Learn about HIV and AIDS treatment options, symptoms, and diagnosis.What Are HIV & AIDS? Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention
HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Learn about HIV symptoms, HIV test, HIV positive, being HIV positive, how HIV infection spreads, T-Cell counts, antiretroviral therapy (ART), viral load, Truveda, and other HIV/AIDS therapies.HIV Testing
HIV antibody tests detect antibodies the body produces to neutralize the virus. HIV RNA testing uses polymerase chain reaction to detect HIV RNA in a person's blood. It usually takes one to three days to get results.HIV/AIDS Quiz
Now, more than ever, you should know about HIV/AIDS, especially its causes, symptoms treatments, and complications. Take the HIV/AIDS Quiz now!How Do You Know if a Guy Has HIV?
Most of the signs and symptoms of an HIV infection are the same for both men and women. However, a few symptoms are specific to men, such as low sex drive, sores on the penis and pain during urination.How Long Can You Live with HIV?
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. If someone has HIV it means that they have been diagnosed with the HIV infection. AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome); however, is the most advanced or final stage of the HIV infection. In the case of an untreated HIV infection, the overall mortality rate is more than 90%. The average time from infection to death is eight to ten years.How Long Does It Take to See Signs of HIV?
The signs and symptoms of HIV may first appear within two to four weeks of infection. The stage in which the symptoms appear is called the stage of acute HIV infection. The symptoms appear due to the resistance or fight of the immune system against HIV. Early diagnosis and treatment of HIV gets the best results.What Are the Four Stages of HIV?
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) into four stages. Stage 1 (HIV infection): The CD4+ cell count is at least 500 cells per microliter. Stage 2 (HIV infection): The CD4+ cell count is 350 to 499. Stage 3 (advanced HIV disease or AHD): The CD4+ cell count is 200 to 349. Stage 4 (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome [AIDS]): The CD4+ cell count is less than 200.What Foods Should HIV Patients Avoid?
People living with HIV face several health challenges because their bodies must work harder to fight infections. HIV patients should avoid foods high in sodium, sugar, and trans and saturated fats.What Is the Difference Between HIV-1 and HIV-2?
There are two main types of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is the most common type of HIV and accounts for 95% of all infections, whereas HIV-2 is relatively uncommon and less infectious. HIV-2 is mainly concentrated in West Africa, is less deadly and progresses more slowly.Should I Be Worried About Pregnancy if I Used a Condom?
Condoms are a popular method of birth control. If used correctly, there's about a 2 percent risk of becoming pregnant while using a condom, but it's a good idea to use another method of birth control along with it. Condoms are probably the most effective means for preventing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as long as they are used correctly during sex.