The purpose of this paper is to write a general overview about HIV Vaccines- what they are, their importance, why its taken so long to develop one (challenges), how they (the vaccines) would work, the different types, epidemiology from a global health perspective (for example Clade C is the most common strain of the virus in South Africa, so they are currently conducting a clinical study there on a vaccine that would target it as opposed to other strains. Furthermore, HIV is constantly evolving and is most diverse at its point of origin in Africa- meaning that in order for vaccines to be effective, especially in developing countries where they are most needed, they would have to be able to target many different strains.), past research (RV144 trial AKA the Thai Trial), *current (3 major clinical trials: 1 HVTN 702 or Uhambo, 2 HPX2008/HVTN 705 or Imbokodo, 3 PrEPVacc which is a pair of trials looking at broadly neutralizing antibodies) or possible upcoming vaccine research findings* (this is probably the most important part of the paper), some information on non-progressors (those who have almost a natural immunity to the virus because they are able to utilize broadly neutralizing antibodies to fight the disease- although it should be kept in mind that they cannot completely eliminate it (can only prevent it from progressing to AIDs) and even among the small percentage of people with this ability (~1% of those infected with HIV) there are varying degrees of immunity. For example, there are those who are known as elite controllers, who have the best ability to fight the virus, and even they may have this ability for only a few weeks or for years upon years.
