19 Aug The VARG #HVAD2018 Report - Celebrating Partnerships, Strengthening Advocacy

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD) on 18 May each year commemorates U.S. President Bill Clinton’s 1997 declaration that, “only a truly effective, preventive HIV vaccine can limit and eventually eliminate the threat of AIDS”.

In 2014 alone, AIDS killed more than 1.2 million people globally and HIV newly infected 2 million people, with two-thirds of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. Recent modeling data shows us that even with substantially increased use of existing treatment and prevention options there will be hundreds of thousands of new HIV infections per year in low- and middle-income countries for decades to come.

The world needs an AIDS vaccine, and science can get us there. Promising new vaccine candidates are progressing toward clinical evaluation, with late-stage studies about to begin for some. Each year, the VARG commemorates the month of HVAD by implementing a variety of activities around the globe influenced by the local context.

This report found here highlights some of that work and celebrates the partnerships that make the work of the VARG a possibility.

The HVAD activities undertaken this year were possible through funding from the VARG’s founding partner, AVAC.

To learn more about AVAC’s HVAD 2018 activities visit: https://www.avac.org/blog/hiv-vaccine-awareness-day-2018-tools-more