In the year 2008, something unbelievable happened: a man was cured of HIV. In more than 70 million HIV cases, it was the first and, so far, the last. We still don't know exactly how he was healed or cured. Doctor's all over the world can cure people of various diseases, like malaria and hepatitis C, so why can't we cure HIV? Well, let's first look at how HIV infects people and turns into AIDS. 

This virus known as HIV is spread only by the exchange of bodily fluids. Unprotected sex and contaminated needles are the main cause of transmission. The good thing is that, it cannot be spread through air, water, or casual contact. People of any age, sexual orientation, gender and race can get HIV.

Once inside the body, HIV infects cells that are part of the immune system.It specifically targets helper T cells, which help defend the body against bacterial and fungal infections. HIV is a retrovirus, which means that it can write its own genetic code into the genome of infected cells, cooperating with them to create multiple copies of itself.

At the early stage of HIV infection, the virus replicates in helper T cells, destroying many in the process. During this stage, patients often show flu-like symptoms, but they are usually not yet life threatening. for several years, during which the patient may appear and feel perfectly healthy, the virus continues to replicate and destroy T cells. When the number of T cells drops too low, patients are at serious risk of contracting fatal infections that a healthy immune system can normally take care off. This phase of HIV infection is known as AIDS.

The good news is that there are drugs that are very effective at managing HIV levels and preventing T cell counts from dropping enough for the disease to progress to AIDS. With antiretroviral therapy, most people with HIV can expect to live long, healthy lives and are much less likely to infect others. 

However, there are two main issues.The first is that HIV positive patients should continue to take their medication for the rest of their lives. Without them, the virus can return fatally, that's a deadly comeback.

But HIV is hiding where our current drugs can't reach it: inside the DNA of healthy T cells. cells die soon after being infected with HIV. But in a small percentage, instructions to build more HIV virus remain pending, sometimes for years. So even if we could eliminate all HIV viruses from an infected person's body, one of those T cells could activate and start spreading the virus again. The other big problem is that not everyone has access to this life-saving therapies. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for more than 70% of the world's HIV-infected patients, antiretrovirals only reached about one in three HIV-positive patients in 2012. There's no simple answer to this problem. A mix of political, economic and cultural barriers make effective prevention and treatment difficult.And even in the United States of America, HIV still kills more than 10,000 per year. 

So how do these drugs work? The most commonly prescribed prevent copying of the viral genome and its incorporation into the DNA of a host cell. While some of the drugs prevent the virus from assembling or maturing , making HIV unable to infect new cells in the body. 

However, there are many reasons to be hopeful. Researchers are perhaps closer than ever to developing a real cure. One research approach is to use a drug to activate all the cells that house the genetic information of HIV. It would destroy those cells and kill the virus out in the open, where our current drugs work. Another is trying to use genetic tools to completely remove HIV DNA from cell genomes.

And while a cure in 70 million cases may seem like a terrible probability, one is infinitely better than zero. We now know that a cure is possible, and it could give us what we need to beat HIV forever.