"Merck's HIV vaccine declared a failure" :-(

I think that everybody in the HIV field is slightly depressed about this at the moment. I thought you all might be interested:

Here is the link if you are interested in reading more:

"The STEP study, a phase II randomized control trial of Merck's HIV vaccine

has revealed this week that the drug is a failure, and may actually have

increased participants' risk of contracting HIV.  The trial was based in

Seattle, but had sites worldwide.  It was decided today that subjects will

be unblinded to which arm of the study they were randomized to.  Dr. John

Bartlett, chief of infectious disease at Hopkins said, 'Some people will say

we're right where we were in 1985 and, in some ways, we are.'"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004012829_aidsvaccine14m.html