HIV vs AIDS.
You can have HIV and not develop AIDs provided that the virion stays latent. over 1 million americans may test HIV positive and not develop any symptoms of AIDS for rather prolonged periods of time. AIDS is a syndrome not a infectious disease. Pathogenicity (aka virulence) of the HIV-1 virus is still being debated by many.
a vaccine is close but the virus (HIV-1) is extremely adaptable and the sucker's virion protein capsids are EXTRODINARILY variable so vaccine production is difficult. HIV-1 envelope proteins can differ in more than 30% of their amino acids, showing great complexity. To contend with the diversity, country-specific vaccines are being considered.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/health-and-nutrition/23651-hiv-can-be-manageable.html
anti-retroviral drugs are also improving, hard to keep up with them. They target multiple parts or processes of virion replication and are usually cocktails of various drugs that inhibit different parts of the virion replication process.
cocktail consists of;
Fusion inhibitors
Reverse transcriptase inhibitors
protease inhibitors, etc.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=23651
the side-effects to these drugs are significant and people should be cautious...quality of life could deteriorate...and people should know that it is not a cure but a prolongment of the inevitable. (the virus integrates into cellular DNA...it literally becomes a part of our genetic makeup). Anti-retroviral drugs slow the destruction of CD4+ T cells by reducing the HIV viral load...pro-longing life of the patient, and with it, further transmission oppurtunities (the longer the carrier is alive the higher chances of further propagation). Which is why concentrating on HIV/AIDS prevention rather than treatment should be central for the good of all.
HIV tests; ELISA, Western Blots and IFA are fairly accurate (there validity was questioned in a Biomedical journal by a group of contraversial researchers called "the perth group" who published a denial of the existence of HIV in the journal 'Biotechnology' in 1993) ... later to be proven false and erroneous there still exists a group out there who do not believe that HIV causes AIDS.
HIV testing has improved but the newly developed self-Oral testing kits have been dissapointing with incidents of false positives relatively high.
Not to sound callous, but I believe that HIV is ultimately an evolutionary tenet. (A negative feedback response to large human population growth). I also think that it's origins were the result of human medical/social acitivity. The virus seems to be an evolutionary offshoot of SIV (Simian Immuno Virus). I think the HIV was propagated during the drive to eliminate Polio in Africa with tainted needles used with possibly tainted live attenuated polio vaccines. (humans trying to irradicate a disease caused SIV to evolve/mutate and become HIV).
The Origin of HIV and the First Cases of AIDS 