Developing a vaccine

Historically, vaccination is the only strategy that has ever led to the worldwide elimination of a viral disease (as happened with smallpox) and the near-elimination of another (polio). While the biology of HIV is less favourable to vaccine development, some experimental vaccines do, to varying degrees, protect animals against related viruses such as SIV, the simian immunodeficiency virus, and to artificial human/animal challenge viruses created in the laboratory.

We need much more than biological immunogenicity for a vaccine to be effective, however. An ideal vaccine would be cheap to produce, stable at room temperature, easy to transport and administer without special equipment, completely safe, and would ideally need only one dose to provide complete lifelong protection against all routes of transmission and all variants of HIV. However even an imperfect vaccine could deliver public health benefits and provide further insights for prevention and treatment strategies.