AVAC Report

For nearly 15 years, AVAC has published an annual review of biomedical prevention research. Over this period, the focus of the AVAC Report has expanded from AIDS vaccine research alone to the full spectrum of options, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, HSV-2 treatment, microbicides, and male circumcision. This comprehensive document reviews progress, makes recommendations, and analyses emerging issues. 

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Visit our AVAC Report Archive to view the AVAC Reports from 1998-2008

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2009 AVAC Report: Piecing Together the HIV Prevention Puzzle

When conceptualizing this year's Report, we took inspiration from a  quotation in the 2006-2008 review of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - funded Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (www.cavd.org), which states that the ultimate goal "is to develop a vaccine that prevents HIV infection or disease, anything less than that can be characterized as progress, but not success."

In the first section of the Report, "Puzzling Out Progress," we report on the AIDS vaccine field, where there's an energized focus on discovery, innovation, and basic science. In the second section, "Puzzling Out Success," we turn to the implications of PrEP and other strategies in efficacy trials today. Throughout, we argue that success will depend on combination approaches: on research plus implementation; on vaccines plus PrEP, should either show benefit; and on communities plus researchers working towards common goals.

Piecing Together the HIV Prevention Puzzle (full report)

•  Piecing Together the Big Picture: A letter from the Executive Director
• AVAC Report 2009 at a Glance
• AVAC's Top Recommendations for 2009 and Beyond
• Status Report - An update on last year's recommendations

Section 1: Puzzling Out Progress

• Pursuing Prevention: Are there missing pieces?

• Clinical Research Continues
• Using Genomics to Generate New Hypotheses
• Big Questions for 2009 and Beyond

• Fitting AIDS Vaccine Science into the Bigger Picture
• Solving the Enterprise Equation: When is a whole greater than the sum of its parts?
• AVAC's Quick Take on the Enterprise
• Steps to Success: The Step vaccine study's scientific contributions to the field
• A Trial by Any Other Name: HVTN 505 and the VRC candidate

Section 2: Puzzling Out Success

• The PrEP Implementation Puzzle: Many missing pieces
• Part of the Solution: Setting expectations for WHO and UNAIDS
• Preparing for All of the Coming Year's Trial Results
• Te queremos - but are we ready? Taking the next step with HIV prevention research and gay men in the developing world

*Click here to download the tables, figures, and graphics found in the Report*