Every year, May 18 marks World AIDS Vaccine Day; a day to emphasize on the urgency of an effective HIV vaccine to prevent AIDS. It is also considered as a day to express our heartfelt gratitude towards the innumerable volunteers, community members, health professionals and scientists who are working tirelessly to invent a safe and effective vaccine to prevent Human Immunodeficinecy Virus (HIV).
History and significance of World AIDS Vaccine Day
Since the year of 1998, May 18 has been observed globally as World AIDS Vaccination Day. The origin of the day is rooted in a commencement speech delivered by the erstwhile US President Bill Clinton back in I997. In his speech, he stated that a vaccine was the only measure that caould control the transmission of HIV and eventually wipe it out. The day has been commemorated from the following year of 1998.
How World AIDS Vaccination Day is celebrated across the globe
In a bid to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS vaccines, prevention and educate people, every year communities across the globe organise various activities and awareness campaigns on this day. May 18 is also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.
What is AIDS?
AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is a transmissible disease caused by the Human Immuno Deficiency virus which primarily disrupts the normal functional rhythm of body's defence mechanism against any infection and eventually leads to compromised immune system. The term 'acquired' is used to imply that it happens only when a person becomes infected with a virus.
The disease is transmissible through body fluids including infected blood, semen or vaginal fluids. Unprotected sexual contact, usage of uncleaned needles for drawing blood, tranfusion of unscreened blood are among the causes of getting infected by the HIV virus.
How much progress has science made in finding a preventive vaccine?
Unfortunately, the world is yet to possess the vaccine that can pevent AIDS. As a matter of fact, a long list of obstacles have been causing massive hindrances in developing a vaccine to battle the disease that has taken away so many lives. But, the mammoth scientific fraternity across the globe is still on a quest to discover a panacea to fight it off.
Multiple setbacks since 1987, when research on HIV was initiated for the first time at the National Institutes of Health, Maryland, USA, though have helped the scientists to outline the underlying causes behind the failure to design an effective vaccine for HIV.
Rapid mutating capacity of the HIV is one of the primary reasons behind it as the vaccines developed so far become ineffective once the virus changes its form.Also, universally scientists consider the immune responses generated by the surviviors of a disease as a standard reference frame to create a vaccine. The immune responses are often mimicked in fact to optimise the vaccine's effectiveness. Bit in this case they fail to apply the similar modus operandi as no individual so far has recuperated from the disease.
Till date, the individuals infected with HIV are treated with anti-retroviral therapy (ART) which includes a combination of multiple drugs to reduce the viral load in their body.
