Vaccine Efforts Against AIDS

Abstract

A vaccine is an antigenic preparation that confers immunity or protection against a particular path- ogen or disease. In the classic approach to vaccination, a microbial immunogen is delivered, there is an immune response to the immunogen, and it is hoped that immune response is protective. Mainly used as preventive, vaccines can also be of benefit in a therapeutic setting. The historical success of vaccines in preventing a variety of viral diseases has raised hopes that the world would soon have an effective vaccine against HIV/AIDS. In this chapter we discuss the global efforts of the scien- tific community in obtaining a prophylactic vaccine against HIV and highlight the reasons why it has thus far proven difficult.