The Problem

There is still no cure for AIDS. Although effective therapies against HIV exist, there are a number of problems with the current drugs –
Their expense prevents their widespread use in poorer countries of the world.
Some patients suffer from unacceptable side effects.
While the drugs decrease the level of virus in the blood of infected patients, the virus can “hide” in a temporarily inactive or latent form inside cells or in areas of the body that are inaccessible to the drugs, so that the drugs cannot eradicate all of the virus. When treatment is discontinued, the virus rebounds to high levels.
The virus can mutate and become resistant to drug treatments.
The ultimate goal is to develop a vaccine that will prevent the transmission of HIV, or at least the progression to AIDS in individuals already infected. However, this remains a great challenge. Clinical trials of candidate vaccines are underway, but the development of effective vaccines has been hampered by
the ability of HIV to mutate. Although the immune system may recognize a particular version of HIV used to make a vaccine, it may fail to recognize a mutated version that is present in an infected individual and therefore be unable to prevent infection in that individual.
an incomplete understanding of how the human immune system can best control or eliminate the virus.
Until a vaccine or improved drugs can be developed, prevention of new infections is a top priority. However, social and political obstacles continue to hinder this goal. Although the means - especially unprotected sexual contact and intravenous drug use - by which HIV is transmitted are well established, lack of education and inaccessibility of effective protective measures such as condoms and sterile syringes allow the disease to continue to spread. Only 10 % of HIV-infected pregnant women currently obtain treatment to halt transmission of the disease to their unborn children.
Despite the fact that access to anti-viral drugs by HIV-infected individuals in developing countries has increased in the past several years, the rate of new infections continues to outpace efforts to treat AIDS patients and prevent new cases. It has been estimated that the number of people infected with HIV will rise from around 40 million today to 60 million by 2015.