Prevention
The best prevention measures are to abstain from sex.  Abstinence is the only guaranteed way to avoid getting HIV.  If abstinence is not an option for you, using barrier protection, such as a latex condom with a water-based lubricant, is the next best thing.  Speak openly with your partners about your HIV status and encourage them to do the same.  If you do not know your status, or your partner does not know, go together for testing.  If having oral sex, use a dental dam, which will act as a barrier as well.   

Do not share needles with drug users.  If you are a drug user, seek help to stop from using to decrease your chances of getting infected.  If you must share a needle, clean it properly with bleach and hot water to help reduce the risk. Pregnant women should get regular checkups and care before, during, and after the pregnancy.  A HIV infected mother should never breastfeed her baby.

Treatment
If a person is already infected with HIV, there are treatment options available to him.  Several drugs have been developed over the past ten years in order to help fight HIV.  Most people who are getting treatment are on two or more medications at the same time, known as Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART), also called combination therapy or ‘the cocktail’.  This kind of therapy has been found the most effective.  There are three main classes of medicines used to treat HIV.  The first is nucleoside reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors.  These interrupt the early stages of HIV when the virus is making copies of itself.  AZT is an example of this kind of drug.  The second class of drugs is called protease inhibitors, and they interrupt virus trying to make copies of itself at a later step in its life cycle.  An example of this kind of drug is Ritonavir (Norvir).  The third class of drugs is called Protease Inhibitors.  These drugs help treat the infections that people with HIV often get.  An example of this kind of drug is Foscarnet and Ganciclovir to treat eye infections.

Many of these drugs are hard to take, are hard on the body, or simply do not work on their own.  That is why they are taken with other drugs, in order to make sure the body does not resist the drug.  If the body stops reacting to one ‘cocktail’ of drugs, another set is tried to see if it will work.  Like any other drug, each has its own set of side effect, and while HAART is not a cure for HIV but it has helped greatly reduce the amount of HIV related deaths in the United States.