ttern. A test performed too soon after exposure may fail to detect the infection because antibodies have not yet developed. The first HIV test was approved in 1985. Today the United States National Institute of Health formed the HIV Vaccines Trials Network to develop and test preventive HIV vaccines. Composed of core operations, data, and laboratory centers, as well as clinical research centers located worldwide. COURSE AND TREATMENTSHIV LIFE CYCLE begins when the virus binds to the cell surface, fuses with the cell membrane and empties its contents into the cell. Next, the HIV enzyme reverse transcriptase copies the viral genetic material from RNA into double-strand DNA, which another HIV enzyme-integras-splices into the cellular DNA. Using the integrated DNA, or provirus, as a blueprint, the cell makes viral proteins and RNA. A third enzyme, HIV protease, slices the new proteins, enabling them to join the RNA in new viral particles that bud from the cell and infect others. Current HIV drugs aim to stop viral replication by inhibiting reverse transcriptase or protease. Other kinds of drugs are under investigation. Many people do not develop symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. These symptoms usually disappear within a week to a month and are often mistaken for those of another viral infection. During the period, people are very infectious, and HIV is present in large quantities in genital fluids. More severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. During the asymptomatic period, however, the virus is actively multiplying, infecting, and killing cells of the immune system. As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications start to take over. The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HI...
