The pursuit continues: Why an HIV vaccine still matters

Forty-five years into the HIV epidemic, a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine remains a central goal. PrEP and PEP have changed prevention, and HIV treatment can prevent sexual transmission when viral load is undetectable. Despite these advances, prevention tools require access, adherence, and continuity of care, and healthcare systems have not reached everyone. A vaccine could work without prescriptions, refills, or systems that provide care with dignity. It could strengthen the prevention toolbox rather than replace existing tools, and if developed and delivered equitably, it could help close gaps left by current systems. HIV’s biology makes vaccine development difficult due to mutation, integration into host cells, and immune evasion.

"Forty-five years into the HIV epidemic, the pursuit of a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine remains as important as ever. Scientists conducting the research, community members serving as clinical trial volunteers, the Community Advisory Boards (CABs) helping to guide the science, and advocates fighting for sustained funding all continue working toward one of the movement's most urgent and enduring goals: a safe and effective preventive HIV vaccine."

"Treatments require access, adherence, and continuity of care. PrEP works, but only for those who can get it and stay on it. Every tool we have depends on a system reaching the people who need it, and our healthcare system has never reached everyone. A vaccine does not require a prescription, a refill, or a system that sees you and treats you with dignity. It works regardless."

"An HIV vaccine is the tool that could change the math permanently, not just for people with access to good healthcare, but for everyone. It would not replace the other prevention tools we have. It would strengthen our prevention toolbox. It would give people and communities another option. And, if developed and delivered equitably, it could help close the gaps that current systems do not."

"HIV is one of the most scientifically challenging targets for a vaccine researcher to tackle. The virus mutates in ways that have confounded standard vaccine approaches for decades. It integrates itself into the body's own cells. It evades immune response"

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