STORY: These mice - infected with the human AIDS virus - offer hope for a functional cure.

A team at the University of Hong Kong say their antibody could pave the way for an AIDS vaccine - and help those already infected.

PROFESSOR CHEN ZHIWEI, DIRECTOR, AIDS INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF HONG HONG, SAYING: "If our antibody really showed similar efficacy (as) what we found in mice, in human, in this case, then we will hope actually the antibody can help not only control the viruses in the body, and actually they can help eliminate already infected cells.

So this is what we call a functional cure." A functional cure would prevent HIV from causing any illness - rather than a sterilizing cure which would eliminate it from the body.... which is what's been observed in the mice.

PROFESSOR CHEN ZHIWEI, DIRECTOR, AIDS INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF HONG HONG, SAYING: "We are not using the conventional mice, actually we using the humanised mice.

That means the mice has all the human immune cells in their body, so that they can support the real AIDS virus infection in the body.

And that's very useful for us to test our bi-specific neutralisation antibody." Chen said China is undergoing a 'major AIDS epidemic'.

Around 35 million people have died of the disease so far and more than 36 million are living with it - according to the World Health Organisation.

But Hong Kong based AIDS Concern urged caution - saying there are already treatments that governments globally choose not to use.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, AIDS CONCERN, ANDREW CHIDGEY, SAYING: "We know that some of the HIV treatments can actually prevent HIV, not just treat it.

Yet governments are being very, very slow to implement programs here.

So just because a treatment becomes available, doesn't mean that people will get it, or that it will have an impact." The team say their next goal is to increase the effectiveness of the antibody to make a serum that can be injected just quarterly.