... this is not close to perfect, but an experimental mix of two previously tested but ineffective vaccines appears to have at least a 31 percent prevention rate based on one recent trial. The story is written up here.
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The article says that 51 out of 8,197 people who got the vaccine became infected with HIV, while 74 of 8,198 people in the control group got the disease. I'm not a statistician, but those infection rates seem so low that it's hard to draw a conclusion from them.
The difference between 74 and 51 is not overwhelming impressive, that is true, but given this sample size, I get a p-value of under 0.05 using Fisher's Exact test. So you wouldn't want to build a bridge with these data, but you wouldn't want to give up the study either.
This video talks about how this is just a simple stepping stone for the fight against AIDS. I agree with it - I think there is still much to do to make sure this vaccine really works. http://www.newsy.com/videos/positive_step_toward_cure_for_hiv_aids