The Guardian

A cure for HIV is in sight as science chases the holy grail

Medical research enters a new era to find ways to eradicate HIV from infected populations
Artist’s impression of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Photograph: MedicalRF.com/Alamy

More than 50 years after it jumped the species barrier and became one of the most devastating viruses to affect mankind, HIV remains a stubborn adversary. Treatment has improved dramatically over the past 20 years, but people who are infected will remain so for the rest of their lives, and must take one pill daily – at one time it was a cocktail of 30.

But now, as another World Aids Day pulls into view, scientists are beginning to ask if the biggest breakthrough – an out-and-out cure for the tens of millions who have contracted the virus – could be in sight.

The excitement lies in research that is having some

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