HIV/Aids breakthrough not a ‘cure’, popular social media posts misrepresent the facts
IN SHORT: While promising, a recent breakthrough in HIV research is not a “cure” or a “vaccine”, as several posts claim on social media. The scientists involved say it could be many years before the technology is used as a cure.
Users on Facebook, Instagram and X have shared the same “BREAKING NEWS” message, claiming that “A CURE FOR HIV/AIDS HAS JUST BEEN FOUND”.
Africa Check found hundreds of these posts, the most popular of which have been viewed millions of times. The message is typically accompanied by a graphic which includes the text “Researchers in Australia have just found a cure for HIV/Aids” and an image created using artificial intelligence tools, of a bottle labelled “HIV Vaccine®”.
Unfortunately, this claim is not true.
The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus which attacks the immune system, the processes responsible for protecting the body from disease. If left untreated, it causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or Aids.
HIV can be treated with antiretroviral drugs, which prevent the virus from multiplying in a person’s body. ARV treatment can lower the level of the virus in a person’s body to the point that it is undetectable and cannot be transmitted to others. However, ARVs cannot eradicate the virus entirely.
So what has prompted these “breaking news” posts?
In this case, there is a real scientific breakthrough behind these claims, but it has been described in a misleading way.
Deliberately misleading headline and image shared alongside text copied from genuine news story
These posts include paragraphs of text, describing the scientific breakthrough. They begin:
A cure for HIV could be a step closer after researchers found a new way to force the virus out of hiding inside human cells.The virus’s ability to conceal itself inside certain white blood cells has been one of the main challenges for scientists looking for a cure. It means there is a reservoir of the HIV in the body, capable of reactivation, that neither the immune system nor drugs can tackle.Now researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Melbourne, have demonstrated a way to make the virus visible, paving the way to fully clear it from the body.
The text is identical to the first 12 paragraphs of a news article published by the UK’s Guardian newspaper on 5 June 2025. None of the posts which Africa Check found clearly credited the Guardian as the source, nor did they include the entire article.
The original article is headlined: “Breakthrough in search for HIV cure leaves researchers ‘overwhelmed’.” In the posts on social media this has been replaced, usually with a variation on “Breaking News: A cure for HIV/Aids has just been found”, sometimes misspelling Aids as “Auds”.
The Guardian article never refers to the research as a “cure”, but only as a promising step towards one.
In sections of the article not included in the social media posts, researchers are quoted as being “very hopeful” that the breakthrough could eventually be replicated in humans. But this could be a long way off.
The Guardian notes: “The path to using the technology as part of a cure for patients is long and would require successful tests in animals followed by safety trials in humans, likely to take years, before efficacy trials could even begin.”
The Guardian links back to the original scientific paper, published in the journal Nature Communications. The paper also does not refer to its findings as a “cure” for HIV. Although they don’t represent a “cure”, the findings are a promising development in HIV research.
Promising advancement in research, not HIV cure
As already discussed, ARV medications can reduce the presence of HIV in a person’s body, but not eradicate the virus entirely. The Nature Communications article covers research into a potential solution to this problem.
In their paper and in comments to the Guardian, the University of Melbourne researchers describe a new method of delivering genetic material, known as mRNA, into certain kinds of white blood cells. HIV is able to infect these white blood cells, where it can essentially hide from the body’s immune system and other forms of treatment. Being able to reach the virus inside those white blood cells opens up new opportunities to treat it.
Vaccines against Covid-19 also made use of mRNA, which may be why the graphic accompanying these “HIV cure” claims depicts an “HIV vaccine”. (The image in the graphic is very similar to stock images that have existed since 2016.)
The Nature Communications study did not use mRNA to vaccinate against HIV, but demonstrated that “therapeutic mRNA”, such as small pieces of mRNA designed to alert the immune system to the presence of the virus, could be delivered to these white blood cells.
At time of writing, there is no cure for HIV/Aids.
But besides this breakthrough, there have been other promising developments in HIV treatment.
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Real breakthroughs in HIV treatment
In 2023, a clinical trial began in South Africa and the US to test the efficacy of a potential vaccine against HIV called VIR-1388. Like other vaccines, VIR-1388 would not be a cure for HIV but, if it works, may prevent infection and therefore stop the spread of the disease. It was developed by US-based Vir Biotechnology.
ARVs can be taken as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, by people who are HIV negative but likely to be exposed to the virus. This can prevent transmission of HIV. However, PrEP must be taken frequently to ensure proper protection. Current South African PrEP guidelines involve taking one pill every day.
Lenacapavir is an injectable drug which has been shown to reliably protect against HIV transmission for six months at a time, with some trials demonstrating protection for a full year. After successful trials, there are plans to begin use of the drug in countries such as South Africa, which has a particularly high burden of HIV. It has been approved for use in the US.
Like other forms of PrEP, Lenacapavir is neither a “cure” nor a “vaccine”, but can prevent HIV transmission. Because it is much longer lasting than other forms of PrEP, it may make it much easier to prevent transmission.