Method and compositions for conferring viral immunity and reversing viral pathogenesis via strategic infection with a theravirus thereby providing genomic integration of genetically engineered, replication incompetent, integrating viral DNA

A method for constructing a virus that is a competitive inhibitor of HIV viral pathogenesis for the treatment of HIV comprising, obtaining a replication incompetent HIV-derived virus, wherein the replication incompetent virus replicates in an external producer cell line to form a virus particle comprising the replication incompetent viral genome and proteins required for infection and integration of the replication incompetent virus into a host cell genome, wherein the replication incompetent virus is obtained by the steps of:

• (a) mutating an HIV-derived virus such that at least 3 amino acid residues per gene are mutated;
• (b) determining that the virus of step (a) infects the host cell;
• (c) determining that the virus of step (a) integrates into the host cell genome;
• (d) determining that the virus of step (a) does not replicate in the host cell.