The content of this paper is whether or not mutations undergone by the Human
             Immunodeficiency Virus and allow it to survive in the immune system. The cost of
             treating all persons with AIDS in 1993 in the United States was $7.8 billion, and it is
             estimated that 20,000 new cases of AIDS are reported every 3 months to the CDC. The
             question dealing with how HIV survives in the immune system is important, not only in
             the search for a cure for the virus and its inescapable syndrome, AIDS (Acquired
             Immunodeficiency Syndrome), but also so that over 500,000 Americans already infected
             with the virus could be saved. This is possible because if we know that HIV can survive
             through mutations then we might be able to come up with a type of drug to confuse these
             mutations allowing the immune system time to erase it before the onset of AIDS. In order
             to be able to fully comprehend and analyze this question we must first prove what HIV is,
             how the body attempts to counter the effects of viruses in general, and how HIV infects
             HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. HIV is classified as a RNA Retrovirus. A
             retrovirus uses RNA templates to produce DNA. For example, within the core of HIV is
             a double molecule of ribonucleic acid, RNA. When the virus invades a cell, this genetic
             material is replicated in the form of DNA . But, in order to do so, HIV must first be able
             to produce a special enzyme that can construct a DNA molecule using an RNA template.
             This enzyme, called RNA-directed DNA polymerase, is also known as reverse
             transcriptase because it reverses the normal cellular process of transcription. The DNA
             molecules produced by reverse transcription are then inserted into the genetic material of
             the host cell, where they are co-replicated with the host's chromosomes; they are then
             distributed to all daughter cells during later cell divisions. Then in one or more of these
             daughter cells, th...