FIGHTING AGAINST GLOBAL HIV EPIDEMIC: AVAILABLE OPTIONS TO FOCUS ON

HIV continues to be a major global public health issue, having claimed more than 32 million lives so far. While great progress has been made in preventing and treating HIV, there is still much to do. A safe and cost-effective vaccine that prevents HIV infection is considered the best strategy for containing the epidemic. However; historically, the vaccine development for HIV prevention has been extremely difficult. Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) has improved the quality of life of Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients worldwide. This reality suggests that continuing on HIV vaccine research, now we should also consider applying other short-term available prevention and treatment strategies to mitigate the effect of the epidemic.