Last time I checked, vaccines are supposed to prevent you from contracting the illness they're supposed to protect against — that's why I dutifully got my cootie shots every day at recess (never caught it either, depite the best efforts of icky girls). But Merck recently saw their HIV vaccine trials backfire in perhaps the worst way: Not only did they not work, they might make recipients more likely to contract HIV. Hoo boy...that had to be a rough briefing.
Beginning in 2004, 2675 people marked as being high-risk candidates for getting HIV took the vaccine in 19 sites across North and South America, Africa and Australia. They stopped the trial in September when, out of 1836 men in the trial, 49 contracted HIV after taking the vaccine and 33 caught it after the placebo. That means that basically the vaccine seems to improve your chances of catching HIV. Representatives for Merck and its financiers described the results as "disappointing and puzzling," which is interesting, because I expected something more along the lines of "goddamn disaster."
Merck's vaccine is a live, weakened adenovirus (well, hello Mr. Popular) that carries three genes for HIV proteins. Since this isn't the first time adenovirus-based vaccines have caused trouble, it might be time for Merck and others to go back to the drawing board.
The participants received education on HIV and condom use and were tested monthly for the disease, but some contracted it anyway. What's more disturbing: 1) Someone tells you you're at high-risk for HIV, gives you education and tools to avoid it, but you just can't help yourself, or 2) Pharmaceutical companies knowing and perhaps hoping that, to prove their vaccine works, some of this group will ignore their advice, rely on their vaccine and have unprotected, high-HIV-risk sex?
HIV vaccine trial backfires (NewScientist, subscription required)
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