Africa: Study shows why antiretrovirals cannot eradicate HIV

A study published in the November edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation has shed new light onto why individuals who have received effective anti-HIV therapy for many years, and have persistently maintained an undetectable viral load, are still unable to eradicate HIV. In a study involving eleven HIV-positive individuals who had been receiving successful antiretroviral therapy for up to nine years, American and Canadian investigators demonstrated that all eleven patients had CD4 cells infected with HIV that was capable or reproduction, and that most patients also had "considerable" levels of the DNA which HIV produces inserted into cells after infecting both active and resting CD4 immune system cells. The investigators were also surprised to find that most of the persistent HIV was found in active rather than resting CD4 cells.