Letter From the Editor

Dear Readers,

In 1984, the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Reagan administration confidently predicted that there would be a vaccine to prevent HIV infection within two years. Yet two decades, and countless attempts later, we still await the development of such a vaccine. With its endless and rapid mutations, HIV has turned out to be a much more elusive foe than anyone first suspected.

Still, it is almost universally recognized that the global AIDS epidemic will never be defeated until it is possible to provide safe, effective, and affordable vaccinations in every corner of the globe. And so it's crucial that the search for a vaccine continue, and that in the meantime useful and accurate information is made widely available to dispel myths and misconceptions.

For the past year, Body Positive has been working with the New York City HIV Vaccine Trials Unit, with funding from the Community Education and Outreach Partnership Program of the National HIV Vaccine Communications Campaign of the National Institutes of Health. This issue is in large part the product of that ongoing collaboration.

We begin with a crucial scientific overview of how vaccine developers seek to "battle the enemy on many fronts." The issue continues with a perspective on the role of communities in vaccine research, and an interview about the challenge of HIV vaccine development. The issue is rounded out by a first-person account of BP's Gloria Abitol on her participation in a vaccine trial, and some pointers from our regular contributor Dr. J. Buzz von Ornsteiner for those thinking of volunteering in a trial. Read on!