Is a cure for HIV finally on the horizon?

For younger generations, the HIV/ AIDS epidemic might be deemed a disease of the past – relegated to the era of Freddie Mercury and “The Breakfast Club,” Ryan White and cassette tapes.

Although treatment and prevention is much better than it used to be, 1.1 million Americans still suffer from it every day.

The virus is to blame for 35 million deaths worldwide so far.

That’s why a cure is still so critical – and why a medical breakthrough published this week is so exciting.

After years of working separately, researchers from Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center teamed up to accomplish an exciting feat – wiping HIV from the genomes of living, breathing animals.

The group described its work in a July issue of Nature Communications scientific journal, concluding that “permanent viral elimination is possible.”

Human immunodeficiency virus first reared its head publicly in the 1980s. Prior to that, global populations were widely ignorant of its existence, in part due to the absence of obvious symptoms.

Initially labeled “gay-related immune deficiency,” HIV was stigmatized as a disease of homosexuality, referred to as “gay cancer,” “gay men’s pneumonia” and “gay plague.”

Some correlated the virus with drug addicts.

But HIV does not discriminate – bisexual and heterosexual men and women of all ethnicities are also susceptible.

And today, 1 in 7 people with the virus have no idea that they carry it, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

HIV can be contracted through bodily fluids, like blood, breast milk, semen and vaginal discharge – casual contact. Infections can occur when individuals engage in unprotected sex, needle sharing, home tattooing, breast-feeding and even childbirth.

The virus targets the immune system, specifically harming T-helper white blood cells. It then makes copies of itself, eventually wearing away the body’s defenses from illnesses, reports HIV and AIDS charity Avert.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the last phase of HIV – and if untreated, can be fatal.

Currently, there is no antidote for HIV. Individuals must instead take medication regularly as part of antiretroviral therapy. The lifelong regimen prevents the virus from spreading.

Thanks to marked improvements in recent years, a daily preventive pill is now an option for people at high risk of infection, like those with HIV-positive sexual partners.

There is also an emergency medication available to individuals who might have HIV, but it must be taken within the first three days of exposure.

However, the average cost for a filled prescription of these generic HIV medications can fall anywhere between $10 and more than $1,700, according to medical information website Healthline. Notably, people with the highest risk of infection are often those in poverty or without health care, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the latest breakthrough, scientists experimented with existing drugs on “humanized” mice that were infected with the virus.

The new medical approach delayed the progression of the virus by distributing the drug over several weeks to different areas of tissue, such as the spleen, liver, lung and brain. These “tissue sanctuaries” are considered potential hubs for groups of latent HIV cells.

With the next step, any remaining infected cells were destroyed and cleaned from the genes.

As a result, almost 40% of the mice were cured of the virus.

For now, the trials will move on from rodents to primates.

Fingers crossed that science prevails and we can save lives in the process.