An effective vaccine for HIV might be just around that corner.

For the first time ever, an HIV vaccination has actually began to show some effectiveness in preventing HIV!

According to prnewswire.com, "In the final analysis, 74 placebo recipients became infected with HIV compared to 51 in the vaccine regimen arm. The efficacy result is statistically significant. The vaccine regimen had no effect on the amount of virus in the blood of volunteers who became HIV-infected during the study. More detailed results of this study will be presented next month at the AIDS Vaccine Conference, October 19 through 22 in Paris, France." Those statistics stated before means that the vaccine was approximately 30 percent effective.

The trial was conducted in Thailand and was performed on volunteer men and women ages 18 to 30 years old. It was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
They randomly selected half of the individuals to receive the vaccine and the others received the placebo. None of the individuals knew who had been given the vaccine and who hadn't.

What a break through! Hopefully shortly there will be a press release sent out that tells of how they have discovered a vaccine that is up to 90 percent effective in preventing HIV. Even a vaccine with up to 75 percent effectiveness would be amazing. If this were to occur, there would definitely be a need for a mass distribution of this vaccine in countries all over the world and especially in the continent of Africa where the aids epidemic is continuously growing.

According to avert.org, "Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by HIV and AIDS than any other region of the world. An estimated 22 million people are living with HIV in the region - around two thirds of the global total. In 2007 around 1.5 million people died from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and 1.9 million people became infected with HIV. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than eleven million children have been orphaned by AIDS."

Those statistics should shock you. Something obviously needs to be done, and as a country that has the technology to find an effective vaccine, it is our duty to the world to try and help out. It was so exciting to read this press release. I do however feel that this press release needs be taken with cautious optimism.

Also, other steps to prevent the spread should still be enforced or recommended. Individuals in countries that are prone to getting HIV need to be educated on safe sex practices and other forms of protection that will help prevent the spread of HIV. The vaccine won't be a cure all, but it is a great start.