An HIV vaccine may be just a few years away. Scientists say that in four to five years, they may be able to tell which candidate vaccines could successfully be developed into effective ones.

Still, no one knows exactly when an effective vaccine will be available.

An international symposium was recently held in Beijing that discussed the future of an HIV vaccine.

The following are issues facing the successful development of such a vaccine:

• Testing cannot use a weakened live version of the virus or a whole dead version.
• There are many variations of the virus.
• HIV is a retrovirus - meaning it integrates into the genome of infected cells.

A few vaccines have been deemed worthy of further development. Some are currently being tested in China. One has even reached the human stage of testing.

Tanzania will start clinical trials of an HIV/AIDS vaccine in March 2006.

© 2006 MyDNA.com