Thirty years after the reports first described AIDS symptoms, the National Institutes of Health marked Wednesday as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day.

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day celebrate the more than 35,000 volunteers who have furthered the development of a vaccine to slow and perhaps even cease new infections of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Though HIV vaccines have been sought for over 25 years, a recent trial in Thailand was able to cut infection rates by a third, boosting hopes that immunization is possible.

An estimated 50,000 people are infected with HIV annually in the United States, with 2000 occurring in Georgia.

To learn more about HIV vaccine development, or how to become a volunteer for the study, go to http://www.bethegeneration.nih.gov/

Tags: HIV, AIDS, HIV awareness, HIV/AIDS, HIV vaccine