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Since it uses the sloppy reverse transcriptase enzyme, HIV is always mutating, making it harder to treat. It can also lie dormant in your body as you infect other people unknowingly. Since it is most commonly transmitted sexually, there is a stigma that often defers people from seeking treatment.

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Many people are asymptomatic and only realize that they are infected once they have been tested, allowing for them to unknowingly spread the virus. Some common symptoms are genital and oral sores, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, cough, and diarrhea.

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HIV is a virus, while AIDS is the condition caused by HIV. A person has aids when their CD4 cells are less than 200 per cubic millimeter of blood.

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Blood, breast milk, semen, and vaginal fluid are all ways that the HIV virus can be transmitted.

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HIV hijacks the body's immune system, targeting and destroying the CD4 helper lymphocyte cells (T cells), an integral part of the immune system. Eventually, the affected person cannot fight off diseases and will eventually die.

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A provirus is the genetic material of a virus that is inserted and then replicated with the host's DNA. In this way, HIV is also a provirus because after the reverse transcriptase does the job, the viral DNA is integrated into the cell's DNA and more HIV viruses are made.

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Viruses that utilize reverse transcriptase, like HIV, are called retroviruses.

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The HIV virus comes equipped with reverse transcriptase which is an enzyme that copies the viral RNA into DNA. It uses envelope proteins that integrate into the host cell wall. The capsid containing the RNA then enters the cell.