Thursday, May 18, marks HIV Vaccine Awareness Day (HVAD) 2017. The initiative is led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s not only an opportunity to raise awareness of the virus and the need for a vaccine but also a chance to thank everyone involved in searching for a vaccine, including the scientists and the volunteers.

For the first time in seven years, a major new HIV vaccine trial is underway. It’s called HVTN 702, and you can read more about it in the POZ exclusive “What If the New Experimental HIV Vaccine Cuts Risk by Only Half?”

The NIAID website offers a History of HIV Vaccine Research, which begins in 1984 and continues to the present day’s HVTN 702 trial.

And in the video below, NIAID director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, talks about why we need an HIV vaccine, the two main approaches to HIV vaccine development and why the HVTN 702 trial is exciting.