HIV Vaccine Trial Comes Under Scrutiny

Last month, scientists reported that a clinical trial for an HIV vaccine showed the first-ever success in preventing transmission of the virus. However, a number of HIV researchers believe that the enthusiasm for last month's vaccine results should be dampened in light of a more comprehensive review of the data. According to scientists interviewed by Nature, the authors of the paper that reported the vaccine trial used an analytical method that disregarded initial trial candidates that either dropped out of the trial or failed to strictly follow the vaccine regimen. When those initial candidates are factored into the analysis, the number of people protected by the vaccine drops below statistical significance. The critics maintain that including those people in the analysis of the data is important both for understanding how the vaccine might work under real world conditions, and to maintain a random sampling...

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