Being diagnosed with HIV is perhaps one of the most frightening things to happen to a person. Not just that, those diagnosed with the disease, which is the precursor to AIDS, will often struggle to get health care cover.

However, new research by scientists in Atlanta may give hope to ex pats who are unable currently receive international health insurance.

Medical scientists at GeoVax Labs and Emory University have created an inoculation that appears to prevent nonhuman primates from contracting the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). This is similar in many ways to human AIDS, although it specifically affects chimpanzees and monkeys, but medical researchers now believe AIDS probably derived from SIV.

Scientists carrying out the work exposed primates regularly to SIV over a 2-year period, with inoculation preventing the development of the disease. This has given scientists hope that similar findings may occur with an equivalent inoculation for HIV and AIDS.

Speaking with reporters, Dr. Harriet Robinson chief scientific officer at GeoVax Labs, and an expert in primates, said: “Repeated challenges in animals are used to mimic sexual transmission. The hope is that the results in the nonhuman primate models will translate into vaccine-induced prevention in humans.”

HIV and AIDS are now considered to be a huge problem worldwide, more particularly in countries such as South Africa and Swaziland. But since the disease doesn’t respect borders, many ex pats are also at huge risk. This means those with HIV are generally denied insurance cover simply because of the costs of treatment. Therefore this new research offers some hope for people living with HIV.