Scientific and social issues of human immunodeficiency virus vaccine development.

Development of a preventive immunogen for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a national priority. The complexities associated with HIV host-virus interactions, coupled with the rapid progression of the HIV epidemic worldwide, have necessitated lowering expectations for an HIV vaccine that is 100 percent effective and have raised important scientific and nonscientific issues regarding development and use of preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines.