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What is HIV?

Treating HIV

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How HIV works in the body

It can be helpful to understand what's really going on with HIV and how medicines used during treatment can fight HIV infection.

The following presentation will also give you information you need to understand how HIV works in the body.

HIV invades and infects healthy cells

Viruses like HIV cannot make copies of themselves on their own. To survive, HIV must enter a healthy human cell, and uses the cell’s "machinery" to make copies of itself.

HIV lifecycle refers to the 4 main steps that HIV takes to make copies of itself. HIV takes over the infected cell and turns it into an HIV factory. HIV makes so many copies of itself that the cell breaks down and dies.

STEP 1: ENTRY
HIV attaches to the cell and uses a
special chemical as a key to enter.
STEP 2: DISGUISE
Once inside, HIV uses a chemical
called reverse transcriptase to
disguise itself. Wearing this
disguise, HIV is ready to sneak into
the cell’s control center.
STEP 3: ACCESS
HIV uses a chemical called
integrase to gain access to the
cell’s control center. HIV then
adds its own information into the cell’s
machinery and starts making copies
of itself.
STEP 4: ASSEMBLY
Another chemical, called protease,
cuts out and puts together the new
copies of the virus. Once the new
viruses leave the cell, they are ready
to find and attack more cells.

Next >> The facts about HIV

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