Why the world needs an HIV vaccine

On the 20th HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, UNAIDS is calling for continued research to find a vaccine for HIV. Although there have been significant discoveries in the field of vaccine research and development, there is still no effective vaccine available against HIV. New HIV infections have remained stubbornly high for the past 10 years. Every year, 1.9 million adults and more than 150 000 children become infected with the virus. Even if a 90% reduction in new HIV infections is achieved by 2030, there will still be around 200 000 new HIV infections annually, demonstrating how essential a vaccine will be for the long-term control of HIV. “Despite our major successes in scaling up treatment and ongoing prevention programmes, there are still large numbers of people becoming infected with HIV every year,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “The biggest impacts in the eradication or control of infectious diseases in the...