Today– May 18th, 2017– is the 20th annual HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.  It is a day to raise awareness for the need for a vaccine for HIV/AIDS.  It is also a day to recognize and thank the thousands of HIV vaccine clinical trial volunteers, researchers, health professionals, and activists who work together toward this goal.

First recognized in 1981, much progress has been made in HIV/AIDS research.  Today, lifesaving antiretroviral therapies allow those living with HIV to enjoy longer, healthier lives by keeping the virus at undetectable levels.  Additionally, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) , is a preventative strategy in which HIV-negative people take one pill a day to reduce their risk of acquiring HIV.

But with this progress in treatment and prevention, the need for a vaccine is still critical. More than two million new HIV infections occurred worldwide in 2015 alone, and this rate of infection has declined only slightly since 2010.

A new National Institutes of Health-funded modeling study suggests that a 50-percent effective preventative vaccine could reduce the number of people living with HIV by 36 percent globally over a period of 15 years, dramatically reducing the number of people who become infected with HIV.

The Ragon Institute remains committed to its mission to pursue research to harness the immune system to prevent and cure human disease, in particular, the scourge of HIV.