What progress has been maded in treating HIV and what do scientists hope may cure it in the future?

Answer 1

Regarding treatment,it has progressed so far that it can push levels of HIV so low it does not even show up on a blood test,this is called "an undetectable viral load" And has had a massive impact on HIV sufferers life spans,in many cases pushing it within ten years of a natural life span.

Regarding treatment,2 intresting Ideas are being investigated. Firstly,HIV cant be cured because HIV hides in dormant CD4 t cells that medication cant reach. Scientists hope to find a way to provoke the immune system into fully activating and then pump someone with anti-retrovirals to flush out the HIV entirely.

A second possibility is gene therepy. Imagine a CD4 cell that HIV infects as a small building with ten doors,well HIV can only enter through two of them. By extracting some of a persons CD4 cells and removing those two entry points and then reinserting them. A person would then contain CD4 cells immune to HIV. Without binding to a host cell HIV will wither and die. Clinical trials have shown that after a year people still have HIV immune cells left but there is much more work to be done.