Progresses and Challenges in HIV Vaccine

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS has become a worldwide epidemic. Currently, there are about 38.4 million people around the planet with HIV, which includes 36.7 million adults and 1.7 million children. In order to stop HIV progression, a vaccine is urgently needed. Despite advances in our scientific understanding of biology, replication, and pathogenesis of HIV, we are yet to develop a trustworthy vaccine to control HIV. Development of an effective HIV vaccine is decelerated by various factors like genetic heterogeneity of the virus, mutations acquired during viral replication, and lack of immune corelates for the virus. Still we have made tremendous progress in HIV vaccine development and in this review, we will emphasize these advancements and the future trends in developing an effective, affordable, and safe HIV vaccine.