The cure for HIV continues to be elusive. That is why a thorough understanding of the nature of the virus is necessary to find a definite solution to the problem.

Even with the latest advancements, medical experts are still trying to solve the riddle behind the virus that leads to AIDS. According to the most recent statistics, HIV affects 39,513 people in the United States alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Experts from Johns Hopkins and George Washington universities recently reported a significant discovery concerning the battle against HIV/AIDS. They have uncovered the influence of defective forms of HIV on the immune system,

"The virus has a lot of ways, even in its defective forms, to distract our immune systems, and understanding how they do this is essential in finding a cure," Medical Express quoted Ya-Chi Ho, M.D., Ph.D., instructor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the lead investigator of the study saying.

The impact of HIV proviruses on the body could create complications in measuring a patient's viral load. It could also exhaust the immune system, and also shields functional HIV from attacks of medication drugs or natural means.

That is why it's important for researchers to fully understand the nature of these faulty HIV proviruses, especially that they can outnumber functional HIV 1000 copies. If experts can exploit the "hypermutated" form of these proviruses, it would be easier for them to eliminate more of the defective HIV proviruses and hopefully develop definite HIV cure.

"If we identify and find a way to use the right protein, perhaps one of those expressed by the "hypermutated" HIV we found in this study, we could create a potent vaccine which could boost the immune system enough to eliminate HIV altogether," added Dr. Ya Chi Ho.

See some ways to avoid HIV/AIDS in the video below: