The HIV Vaccine- Hope for a Brighter Future

For over four decades, HIV has taken its toll on the world around us, hitting the LGBTQ community the hardest of all. Over time, HIV weakens a person's immune system making it difficult to fight illness and disease. The World Health Organization says 37.7 million people were living with HIV in 2020.

Hope Has Arrived

As time has gone on and science has progressed, the world has strived for effective treatments and vaccines for HIV, but until quite recently, not much has worked. But there is hope for a brighter future ahead. Moderna has started human clinical trials for an experimental HIV vaccine that uses the same kind of mRNA technology found in their successful COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine was incredibly successful in its animal trials, and scientists are hopeful it will show the same promise in humans. 56 healthy, HIV-negative adults are taking part in the clinical trial, with 48 getting either one or two doses of the mRNA vaccine and 32 also getting a booster. Eight people will just get the booster. All of the candidates will be monitored for up to 6 months after receiving a final dose.

Time Will Tell

There is still a long road ahead and there is no way to know at this point just how long, exactly, it might take to have a vaccine ready for the public, but scientists are giving this effort their all. If all goes well, this vaccine could change the world.