Last week researchers from the Western University of Canada announced the positive outcomes of their study on a vaccine for HIV. The announcement is encouraging -and preliminary. Test phase 1 ended giving good responses and it has proved that the vaccine - created from a dead version of the HIV virus - is harmless for people.

"These are very exciting results," said Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, professor of virology at the university's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. "It is, really, a major milestone."

The team hope for further positive results during the next steps, when the vaccine will be tested on 600 people at first and after that on 6000 more people. "In order to find enough volunteers available for the vaccination I think we need to have this trial available in many different countries" said Kang. Come to Antwerp as soon as you can, we will wait for you!

It will take time for this vaccine to be available and lots of things still have to happen before then. If the vaccine proves effective, it could be on the market in about five years and be given to high-risk groups such as sex workers, MSM and haemophiliacs.

We just hope that business-related issues will not pervert the next developments. This could be the real key step in the fight against a disease that has already killed around 28 million persons, so let's try not to f**k it up, OK?