HIV/AIDS: epidemic update, new treatment strategies and impact on autoimmunity.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection represents one of the most serious challenges to global public health, since more than 30 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) introduction has dramatically changed the mortality and morbidity of HIV-affected subjects in industrialized countries but has implied an evolution of many HIV-related aspects, both in the utilisation of new antiretroviral drugs options and in the newly-observed spectrum of HIV-associated diseases, including the rheumatic pathology. Current epidemiological, therapeutic, autoimmune and rheumatic aspects of HIV-1 infection are here discussed.