ABSTRACT
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an important challenge to human health. The patients with chronic infection have a gradually decrease of CD4+ T cells and eventually develop into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Most HIV infected patients have received full virological suppression and immunological restoration due to antiretroviral therapy (ART), which improved their survival rate. After the initiation of ART, some patients get rapidly deteriorating clinical symptoms or even death, even though HIV replication is suppressed and CD4+ T lymphocytes raise, which called immune reconstruction inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Clinical observations suggest that IRIS may be associated with a serious opportunistic infection and a very late onset of HIV/AIDS, but there are many unknowns from diagnosis to treatment and pathogenesis. This article reviews the incidence, the development of clinical features, related mechanisms and treatment strategies and other aspects of the disease.