Many people may have misconceptions regarding HIV, but the truth is complex and ever-changing.

HIV is Human Immunodeficiency Virus, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system.

More specifically, HIV targets white blood cells known as CD4 cells, which are the cells that alert your immune system to intruding germs or infections.  HIV also has the ability to reproduce and make copies of itself, which is how it gradually breaks down a human’s immune system. The virus itself does not have any symptoms, and it can take weeks for people to even suspect that they may have been infected. For a person to know if they have HIV, they must be tested by a doctor or use a home testing kit. The danger of HIV lies in the fact that it allows for opportunistic infections, which is when other illnesses take advantage of the immune system that HIV has weakened.

HIV is suspected to have originated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 1920s. Scientists have traced the disease to a surprising source: not other humans, but chimpanzees. Chimps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been known to carry a virus known as the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, which is very similar to HIV. The most widely accepted theory for how humans contracted the virus is something known as the “hunter” theory. It is believed that the people in the area would have hunted the chimpanzees, either getting the disease by eating the animals or getting their blood into any cuts or wounds during the hunt.

From there, HIV became a worldwide illness and was first recognized in the United States in 1980.

Much of the danger of HIV is in its final phase. HIV infections have three stages, the last of which is known as Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. Not all HIV positive people have AIDS, but when HIV is left untreated, it advances to AIDS. AIDS is technically defined as when a person’s CD4 count is below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. Average CD4 count for a healthy person is between 500 and 1,600 cells per cubic millimeter. A person who has AIDS is in more danger for opportunistic infections and, if the infection is left untreated, has a life expectancy of about three years.

Currently, there is no definitive cure for HIV or AIDS.

However, just because there is no cure does not mean there is no treatment. HIV is treatable with drugs known as antiretrovirals. Antiretrovirals are similar to the broader class of drugs known as antivirals, which treat viral infections as opposed to bacterial ones. Antiretroviral drugs are slightly different because they are designed to treat retroviral infections. Retroviruses are viruses that, rather than killing their host cells like average viruses, insert their DNA into the host cells to reproduce. By taking a mixture of different antiretroviral drugs daily, HIV patients can lead pretty healthy and productive lives and live to within a few years of a completely healthy individual.

Scientists hope, though, that in the future, antiretrovirals will not be needed, because the population of people suffering from HIV and AIDS will be non-existent. And new scientific discoveries may make this goal quite feasible.

A large part of why HIV is so hard to cure is that the virus can lie dormant for years before showing itself and causing issues. HIV can hide in the cells it infects, making it hard for the virus to be killed within the body. However, on March 15th, 2017, scientists reported the discovery of a new protein that could change the game for HIV treatment.

The protein CD32a has been found to lie on the surface of infected, but latent, cells. Being able to determine latent HIV cells could help doctors increase the effectiveness of a treatment called “shock and kill.” The therapy is designed to draw out HIV cells so that they are able to be targeted with effective drugs. Latent HIV reservoirs have been an obstacle for this treatment, but the identification of the CD32a protein may take this obstacle out the equation and bring scientists closer to finding a cure to HIV.