Current issues in the development of a vaccine against HIV infection

There are a variety of complex issues involved in current efforts to design and test a safe and effective vaccine against HIV-1 infection. Although a number of important insights already have been gained, future advances in vaccine development must overcome a number of obstacles. These include the lack of a suitable animal model for HIV-1 infection and our incomplete understanding of the protective immune response in this disease as well as uncertainties about the most appropriate strategy for large-scale testing of promising candidate vaccines.