Up until now, there is no cure for HIV or AIDS. But even though there is no cure, there is medication available to improve the quality of life of those infected with this virus. There are two main kinds of medication. The first being Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors. These inhibitors attack the HIV enzyme called Reverse Transcriptase. The inhibitors include: Abacavir, Delavirdine, Didanosine (ddl), Efavirenz, Lamivudine (3TC), Nevirapine, Stavudine (d3T), Zalacitabine (ddC), and Zidovudine (AZT). The second kind of medication is Protease Inhibitors. These inhibitors attack the HIV enzyme Protease. These inhibitors include: Amprenavir, Indinavir, Nelfinavir, Ritonavir, and Saquinavir.

When a patient takes several of these medications at a time it is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). When HAART is successful, the “cocktail” can bring the CD4 immune cells back to normal level.

Although there are many medications to help infected people, they don't all work for every one. Many treatments don't work for many infected people. Some of the medications can cause serious side effects like heart damage, kidney failure, and osteoporosis. In addition to that, as many as 40% of the people on HAART have a virus strand that mutates and makes the medication ineffective. Not to mention the 95% of the infected population around the world don't have any access to any sort of HIV/AIDS medications.