Posted by sue, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Mar 22, 2008 at 3:47 pm

May be a more key topic for would be messiah obama to address is the

FACT that after we have spent billions of dollars to help them

The rate of HIV/AIDS among the gay and bisexual US black community is

now at 50 PERCENT

Posted by perspective, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 23, 2008 at 6:16 am

First and most obvious question: Is this like pregnancy rates amongst unmarried women going UP after the pill was introduced? In other words, if you believe you are protected, as those who had the vaccine probably believed, aren't you more likely to engage in risky behavior?

If the rate of infection ( pregnancy ) is, let's say, 1/100 sexual encounters without the vaccine/pill, and 1/1000 with the vaccine/pill, but the number of people engaging in risky behavior goes up 10 fold because they believe they are "protected", then the vaccine/pill will not lower the sheer number of pregnancies/HIV.

I won't be shocked if that is the conclusion of why this "went wrong".

Posted by joel, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 23, 2008 at 11:59 am

These studies where double blind gold standard research.Those who got the vaccine did not know it was active, those who got the placebo did not know it was inactive

So the analogy with birth control above is false

actually the results of these studies are very bad news indeed for iv drug users and gays in the US.

And devastating for those at risk in Africa and Asia

Posted by however..., a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 23, 2008 at 8:29 pm

if they knew they were part of the study, that in itself could radically affect behavior, as has been noted in other studies.

so, i still will wait until there is more information.

regardless of the cause, the result is still horrible news.

Posted by Dr. Doctor, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 24, 2008 at 9:39 pm

Let me see a novel idea... How about you stop having anal sex.

I will accept my nobel prize for medicine now.

Posted by SUMD, a resident of Stanford, on Mar 25, 2008 at 1:08 pm

We need to prosecute HIV+ gay males who continue to have sex with others.

Of course we should also prosecute HIV+ heterosexuals who risk spreading this disease.

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS current treatments can keep people alive longer but the price is very high in $ and human suffering.

These patients experience accelerated aging so that at age 50 they have the medical conditions typically seen in 80 tr olds

In addition these patients take massive amounts of antibiotics which is causing resistant strains of life threatening infections like MRSA

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14 - Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) may have become a sexually transmitted disease among gay men, researchers here said.

Gay men are 13 times more likely to be infected with a multi-drug-resistant strain of MRSA than are other members of the community, according to Bihn An Diep, Ph.D., of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues.