HIV particles do not cause AIDS, our own immune cells do

Scientists have discovered that HIV does not cause AIDS by the virus's direct effect on the host's immune cells, but rather through the cells' lethal influence on one another. In a new study, the researchers revealed that the HIV 'death pathway' -- how 95 percent of cells die from the virus -- is only initiated if the virus is passed from cell-to-cell, not if cells are infected by free-floating viral particles.