**1. Introduction**

The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by the Human immunodeficien‐ cy virus (HIV) is by far the most feared disease by any person on the planet. The root cause of this fear stems from its relentless worldwide spread and the absence of an effective therapeutic / preventive modality. Since its discovery in the early 1980s, it has been over three decades of war between mankind and HIV. All attempts to overcome the virus have so far been unsuccessful due to the unique features of HIV such as, the abilty to undergo rapid genetic evolution and to establish latent reservoirs. The higly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) is currently the only available strategy to limit the disease progression. Howev‐ er, the principal flaw in HAART is that it fails to eliminate the infection and warrants life long therapy. Long term treatment with anti-retroviral drugs has the disadvantage of poor compliance due to adverse effects and also possesses the risk of selecting resistant mutants. These reasons justify the need to search for novel therapeutic options superior to convention‐ al anti-viral therapy.

Success stories of the Mississippi baby and the Berlin patient have revolutionized the concepts of HIV treatment and offered hope that HIV is not invincible. The strategies that have been developed / being developed against HIV, either affect the virus directly at different phases of its natural course or enhance the immunity to clear the infection from the body. Novel natural and synthetic compounds, peptides, DNA and RNA manipulatory techniques are being explored for their ability to impede the virus. Immune based therapies to accentuate specific anti-HIV immunity have stemmed from the failures encountered with vaccines. Apart from this, various alternative therapies are also being sought by patients. This chapter elaborates the various novel options that are currently being developed for HIV treatment and discusses their potential uses and impediments.

© 2015 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
