"A New Approache to Designing the AIDS Vaccine"

In Laura Blue's article,"A New Approach to Designing the AIDS Vaccine, she discusses a new possible approach to finally discovering a cure to the long dreaded AIDS virus by which the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services boldly announced a cure 25 years ago in 1984. Scientists at Rockefeller University in New York City have undertaken the endeavor of how the body's immune system combats this deadly disease rather than find a flaw in the disease itself. They have discovered a numerous amount of antibodies that individually do little to combat the HIV virus yet together prevent the infection of HIV into other cells. Much of this new perspective and approach to combating the AIDS virus would have been impossible in 1984 if it werent for the recent breakthroughs by being able to identify the blood cells that create the HIV-specific antibodies. The difficulty of creating an effective vaccine is attributed to the virus' constant mutation that has led to the many ineffective failed drugs produced in the past to combat this virus. No guarantee is certain about being able to produce an effective vaccine yet with newfound hope and inspiration has enabled us to better understand it and someday eliminate this threat.
Questions...
Application: Besides finding a vaccine for AIDS, how has this progress brought us closer together without racial borders?
Clarification: How does the HIV virus progress in the human immune system to become AIDS?