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There is currently no cure or vaccine for HIV or AIDS. Newer treatments, however, have played a part in delaying the onset of AIDS, on reducing the symptoms, and extending patients' life spans. Over the past decade the success of these anti-retroviral treatments in prolonging, and improving, the quality of life for people with AIDS has improved dramatically.
Current optimal treatment options consist of combinations ("cocktails") of two or more types of [[anti-retroviral]] agents such as two [[nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors]] (NRTIs), and a [[protease inhibitor (pharmacology)|protease inhibitor]]. Patients on such treatments have been known to repeatedly test "undetectable" (that is, negative) for HIV, but discontinuing therapy has thus far caused all such patients' viral loads to promptly increase. There is also concern with such regimens that drug resistance will eventually develop. In recent years the term HAART (highly-active anti-retroviral therapy) has been commonly used to describe this form of treatment. The majority of the world's infected individuals, unfortunately, do not have access to medications and treatments for HIV and AIDS.
There is ongoing research into developing a [[HIV vaccine|vaccine for HIV]] and in developing new anti-retroviral drugs. Human trials are currently underway. Research to improve current treatments includes simplifying current drug regimens to improve adherence and in decreasing side effects.
Ever since AIDS entered the public consciousness, various forms of [[alternative medicine]] have been used to treat its symptoms. In the first decade of the epidemic when no useful conventional treatment was available, a large number of PWAs experimented with alternative therapies of various kinds, including massage, herbal and flower remedies and accupuncture, to either combat the virus or to allieve related symptoms. None of these were shown to have any genuine or long-term effect on the virus in controlled trials, but they may have had other quality of life-enhancing effects on individual users. Interest in these therapies has declined over the past decade as conventional treatments have improved. They are still used by some people with AIDS who do not believe that HIV causes AIDS. Alternative therapies such as massage, acupuncture and herbal medicine are still used by many sufferers in conjunction with other treatments, mainly to treat symptoms such as pain and loss of appetite. People with AIDS, like people with other illnesses such as [[cancer]], also sometimes use [[marijuana]] to treat pain, combat nausea and stimulate appetite.
==Alternative theories==
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