The Institute of IrsiCaixa AIDS Research, in collaboration with researchers from the National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Heidelberg (Germany), has come up with a possible AIDS vaccine. The team’s findings are published in the “PLoS Biology” Journal. http://idata.over-blog.com/3/14/56/95/EFECTO.jpg Moreover, more than US$ 25 million have been invested as a way to give an international response to the AIDS problem in poor countries, according to a study on what countries need carried out by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS. These investments cover the targets for global access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV and AIDS. The United Nations plan certifies that a third of this flow will be invested in missions linked with changing human habits, practices, and social factors that continue to support the epidemic. Moreover, these resources will be destined to the strengthening of health systems. The UN says that more than 70 million teenagers will undergo scans for the detection of HIV and AIDS, as well as preventive care treatment and services that aim to prevent maternal-child transmission; 20 million homosexual men; 7 million prostitution professionals; and 10 million drug addicts, will all have the opportunity to be alleviated by benefiting from these prevention services against this deadly virus. There are more than 33 million people worldwide living with this virus. The number of new infections reached 2.7 million and the AIDS related deaths reached 2 million. Saharan Africa has 67 percent of persons who live with this disease at a global scale. Furthermore, according to the World Summit of Ministers of Health, in order to prevent AIDS the following elements must be respected: human and spiritual values; not to mention that human rights and the dignity of the person must be protected. Among the pioneers of AIDS are doctors Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Nobel Prize winners in Physiology and Medicine, as well as German researcher Harald zur Hausen, who determined the human papillomavirus. The cruel scourge of AIDS settled in about 5,700 lives in developing countries every year. Homelessness and AIDS form a devastating combination. In Malawi, one in seven adults is HIV positive and half a million children are homeless. Life expectancy has fallen from 52 to 39 years. The pandemic is considered to be a “national disaster”, according to Derek von Wissell, director of the National Emergency Response Council on HIV and AIDS, one notable fighter against this virus of death. In Mozambique life expectancy has fallen from 60 years in 1997 to 31 years as of today, the lowest in the whole world. Infant mortality has been 108 per thousand. There are 130,000 orphans, which amounts to over 30 percent of the child population. Between 50 and 60 percent of malnourished children are affected by AIDS. Clement Ferrer Independent Forum of Opinion (Spain) http://indeforum.wordpress.com/