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HAART is the acronym for the drug regimen given to HIV+ patients. The acronym has changed with the current drugs. I use keep up with the changes, but with the passing years, no longer do that. There are two labs that are used to make the diagnosis. A. The amount of virus in the blood (viral level). When this level is really high, the patient usually has severe symptoms similar to a really bad case of the flue. B. CD-4 level. Basically, the bodies ability to produce the cells that fight the virus. The lower the number, the more serious the long term prognosis for fighting the virus. HAART is actually chemo therapy. Optimum treatment greatly reduces the virus, but cannot eliminate it, and helps those CD-4 cells survive,once lost they are irreplacable. Both these values are affected by many variables in each patient. But the better those numbers, the better the quality of life. There are signifigant side effects associated with the drugs. Sometimes it's a quandry. "Do I feel crummy because of the virus, or because of the drugs"? A big issue is, once a HIV+ patient starts on these drugs they can never quit, and they must be religeous about taking every dose. Everything they do revolves around the disease and the treatment. In recent years the specific drugs have changed, and are said to have fewer side effects. There is no cure. Sometimes, skipping a very few doses, and those "numbers" shoot up. "Restored to health" means reducing lab numbers, and slowing disease progression to livable levels. This is a very simplistic explaination!