(NB: I don't do HIV research.) You are correct. Obviously, curing HIV is an open research question, but also the way to go about curing this retroviral infecti

(NB: I don't do HIV research.) You are correct. Obviously, curing HIV is an open research question, but also the way to go about curing this retroviral infection is still unknown. When there is sustained virologic response, we know that the virus will come back if drugs are withdrawn. Exactly which niche of cells have integrated HIV into their genome, and how to identify them, is an active area of research at least as of about a year ago when I last looked into it (hint: probably macrophages and T cells). The Berlin patient shows that cure is possible via treatments that also eradicate the bone marrow, but these are not generalizable across populations due to the high morbidity and mortality. For prevention, vaccination that can generate antibodies such as the one in the article would be highly valuable. Less valuable but still very beneficial would be a long-lasting monoclonal antibody injection that can be given once a month (or ideally less often) to reduce the likelihood that high-risk individuals become infected. For cure, I suspect that an approach which pairs replication suppression with genome editing tools, such as CRISPR, may ultimately prove successful in curing individuals of HIV.