HIV/AIDS vaccines: How long must humanity wait?

OVER FORTY MILLION PEOPLE ARE INFECTED with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and more than 95% of these infected individuals are in the developing countries. The prevalence levels for this virus will continue to rise globally. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the most devastating global public health crisis since the great plagues of the middle-ages with approximately fifteen thousand new HIV infections and ten thousand deaths due to AIDS every day and approximately 3.1 million total deaths due to AIDS.1 Historically, vaccines have proven to be the most effective weapon in our fight against infectious diseases such as small pox, polio, measles and yellow fever. HIV vaccines are our best hope to end the HIV pandemic. Although successful vaccines have been developed for the common childhood diseases, the development of a vaccine against the AIDS virus is a much greater challenge.