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A member asked:

Why is it that we can stop hiv for a short period of time but we cannot remove it from a person's body entirely?

A doctor has provided 1 answer
Dr. Ricky Hsu answered

The HIV resevoir: Hiv medication blocks the replication of HIV in the blood. However, some cells contain HIV still integrated into the cell's dna (as HIV hijacks the person's cell's dna to replicate) without reproducing - these are the dormant cells or the HIV resevoir. Once someone stops the medicines, the HIV starts replicating again from these "dormant" resevoirs and HIV becomes active again.

Answered 6/10/2014

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