Acute viral infection could form effective antiviral immune response. Naive T cells undergo clonal expansion and give rise to abundant antigen-specific T cells. Some of these T cells differentiate into effector T cells, secrete cytokines and clear the virus. After that, a majority of the effector T cell population dies. Once re-exposure to the antigen , the surviving T cells differentiate into memory T cells and form effective antiviral immunity response. In contrast, chronic viral infections result in T cell function impairment gradually , characterized by losing effector functions and replication potential , and losing the control of the viral infection. In this paper, the characteristics of T cell exhaustion , the advance in maintaining and promoting the exhausted state , especially the advance in chronic human immunodeficiency virus infection are reviewed.