Re: HIV is NOT curable, but it can be managed.

Let me first of all say that I am glad someone who talks about this subject actually knows something about what they are talking about. Too many people try to discuss a topic without any good background or information.

You mentioned two good points:

1. Parent vs. Child
First, one needs to realize how important the placental barrier is: most bacteria and viruses do NOT cross it. As long as you can keep your viral load low, the fetus has a 95% chance of NOT being exposed to the virus at all. This means not only do they not have viral particles being created, they also do NOT have ANY HIV in their DNA.

Second, Germ cells (reproductive cells) are also rather segregated from the rest of the body. Unless you have had HIV your whole life, or have a high viral load, your germ cells will not have the HIV encoding in their DNA. This means you can have a HIV free child (free from the HIV DNA, not just the virus). HIV tends to target immune cells first, blood cells second, and cells outside the bloodstream last. If you can keep your viral load low, the HIV may never leave the bloodsteam and enter the germ cells.

When a child is tested and concidered "free" from the HIV virus, its because they usually are completely free of it. There is NO HIV in the DNA. This does not mean that HIV is harmless.

2. We have many retroviruses in our DNA.
You are absolutely right, but most of those DNA fragments do not replicate on their own, they are just random DNA. Most of those that do self-replicate, have no other function. HIV is completely different from these other retroviral fragments because it has other functions. HIV aggressively replicates, takes over the infected cell, produces more HIV, and destroys the cell as the new HIV are released. Since HIV preferrential targets immune cells, this is what causes the AIDS syndrome of an immunocompromised patient. None of the other DNA viral fragments do this. One cannot claim that since these other viral fragments are dormant, that HIV will ever be dormant either.

If you are infected with HIV, there is NO CURE. Cure being defined as "no more viral DNA or viral particles in the system". Again, I did mention that you can live a relatively normal life with HIV if you can keep your CD4 up and your viral load down.

One cannot call a lack of symptoms or a low viral load to be a cure. Because if the body is weakened again, or you fall off your treatments the HIV will come back. The HIV does not come back because you are reinfected, it comes back because the HIV you were already infected with are allowed to gain control again.

The DNA footprint can never be removed, and as I said before, this is the reason HIV is so dangerous and such an evolutionarily perfect disease. The ONLY possible way to be HIV free is to never have been infected in the first place.