Antiretroviral therapies (ART) allow the control of HIV by stopping the replication of the virus. This makes the HIV viral load undetectable in people living with HIV, which means that the virus is also untransmissible. ART needs to be constantly taken because it does not eliminate the virus. When someone living with HIV stops taking their ART medication, the viral load usually comes back. A cure aims to control HIV in the absence of ART. HIV cure-related research can be broadly categorized into one of two categories, based on the overall goal of the strategy:

​

Eradication or complete elimination: This type of cure refers to getting rid of all HIV from all locations in the body. This also called a “complete cure” or “sterilizing cure.”

​

Durable antiretroviral-free control​: This refers to a cure that results in HIV still being in the body, but it is not active and cannot affect one’s health or be passed to other people. This is also called a “functional cure.“ Most researchers believe this approach is more likely to be achieved than a complete cure. Sometimes people refer to this as HIV remission. Remission means that HIV is not active in the body; there is no guarantee of lifelong control of the virus, and it suggests the need for continued monitoring to ensure that levels of the virus do not increase again many years later.

​

​