AIDS.

Every day, 7,500 people worldwide are newly infected with HIV; 2 million died of AIDS in 2007, the U.N. agency UNAIDS estimates. Announced on Sept. 24, 2009, that there is now a vaccine that help prevents the HIV/AIDS infection. Many scientists before thought this would never be possible due to the many unsuccessful tries before. "Today marks an historic milestone," said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, an international group that has worked toward developing a vaccine.
The Thailand Ministry of public health began this study. They used strains of HIV that were commonly found there. What worries them is whether this vaccination will work with other HIV viruses found in the US, Africa, and else where the deadly disease is found. When studying the vaccination, they took the “prime-boost” approach, meaning the first one primes the immune system to attack HIV and the second one strengthens the response. The vaccination includes ALVAC from Sanofi Pasteur, and AIDSVAX originally developed by VaxGen Inc. ALVAC includes canary pox, a bird virus altered so it’s not to harm humans. AIDSVAX contains a genetically engineered version of a protein on HIV's surface. The vaccines are not made from whole virus — dead or alive — and cannot cause HIV. What scientist also wonders is how long this vaccine will last. Whether one may just have to get one shot or will booster shots be needed after the first shot is needed. This study was performed in Thailand because U.S. Army scientists did pivotal research in that country when the AIDS epidemic emerged there, isolating virus strains and providing genetic information on them to vaccine makers. The Thai government also strongly supported the idea of doing the study