HIV Vaccines in Infants and Children: Past Trials, Present Plans and Future Perspectives

This review will address the recent history in HIV vaccine trials in the pediatric population while giving due respect to the pediatric vaccine successes achieved over the past decades. Success and failure seen when utilizing the neonatal macaque model of SIV infection and the ramifications of these studies will be discussed. The short list of pediatric HIV vaccine trials currently in progress and those in early planning stages will be reviewed. Finally, future perspectives on the impact of a vaccine that could be used to potentially avert mother-to-child transmission of HIV and lead ultimately to the establishment of immunity throughout adolescence and beyond will be presented.