HIV/AIDS at 40: Progress has been plentiful, but vaccine still elusive

[TexasTowelie]

June 4 (UPI) -- Forty years ago, the AIDS epidemic arrived when the first cases were officially reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But while there has been monumental progress fighting the virus since then, questions remain about why there still is no HIV vaccine.

The development of a COVID-19 vaccine, in record time last year, has intensified questioning why an HIV vaccine remains elusive.

COVID-19 has killed millions, but even a pandemic of that magnitude still doesn't compare to the catastrophic death toll that's been attributed to AIDS over the past four decades -- an unrelenting disease caused by a virus that effectively wipes out the body's immune system.

While both diseases are lethal, a stark difference in their mortality rates exists. Untreated, AIDS is a death sentence almost 100% of the time. Forty years of study have given scientists great depth of knowledge about an affliction that doctors initially found in homosexuals and some observers called the "gay cancer."

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/06/04/aids-anniversary-hiv-vaccine-search/8871622650251/

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Dr. Fauci weighed in on this when he appeared with Rachel Maddow:

Fauci: Covid Vaccine Should ‘Absolutely’ Give Hope For HIV Vaccine - Rachel Maddow - MSNBC

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, talks with Rachel Maddow about how HIV/AIDS research contributed to the development of the Covid-19 vaccine and advanced a body of science that makes a vaccine for HIV more possible. Aired on 06/04/2021.