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Mark your calendars: AIDS VACCINE DAY -- May 18, 2000

On May 18, 1999, HIVNET and celebrated the second annual AIDS Vaccine Day (previously HIV/AIDS Vaccine Awareness Day.) Volunteer recognition and educational events took place in cities across the country.

AIDS Vaccine Day is an opportunity for people around the country to understand:

• Why the world needs a vaccine to stop the spread of HIV and halt the global growth of the AIDS epidemic.
• What such a vaccine would mean to their local communities.
• What it will take to develop and test an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
• How ordinary people can be a part of the international effort to find an HIV/AIDS vaccine.

Preventive vaccines have been immensely successful in global efforts to stop other diseases. Smallpox has become extinct in the natural world, and other diseases are becoming more and more rare, as the direct result of international vaccination efforts. In the 1950s, when Jonas Salk made the vaccine to stop polio, church bells rang and banner headlines trumpeted the good news. Salk's vaccine was the direct result of ordinary people's commitment to the cause. Many scientists and activists now believe that a vaccine to stop HIV is possible. As part of the March of Dimes, the public sent dimes to the White House to help fund a polio vaccine; today, public involvement, from national politics to community education, is just as important in the effort to find an AIDS vaccine.

On May 18, 1997, President Clinton challenged the nation and the world to find a vaccine to stop the AIDS epidemic: "If the twenty-first century is to be the era of biology," Clinton said, "let an AIDS vaccine be its first triumph." This year's AIDS Vaccine Day is a chance for people to learn more about the long and unpredictable road ahead--towards the day the church bells ring with the joy of a new vaccine. Many challenges lie ahead. Not only must we find a vaccine which works tomorrow, we must not give up our efforts to stop HIV today, with condoms, clean needles, and other proven HIV prevention strategies. Not only must we find a vaccine which works, we also must continue to work towards finding better and more accessible treatments for HIV disease. Not only must we find a vaccine which works, we must ensure that vaccine trials benefit the communities in which they take place. Not only must we find a vaccine which works, but we must also ensure that once such a vaccine arrives, it is accessible and widely promoted all over the world.

Accomplishing all of these goals will require the concerted efforts of a wide range of Americans and people around the world. You can be an important part of this AIDS Vaccine Day:

• Educate yourself and others about efforts to find a vaccine.
• Honor HIV/AIDS vaccine trial volunteers.
• Highlight the importance of a vaccine to other countries around the world.
• Take part in commemorative efforts locally and nationally.
• Support vaccine-related policy initiatives.
• Speak to the media about HIV/AIDS vaccines and more.

Mark your calendar for next year's celebration. For more information about how you can get involved, contact a Community Educator at a HIVNET site nearest you.

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