AIDS research in crisis as 'miracle' vaccines actually INCREASE chance of catching virus

It is a massive blow to Aids research, which has ground to a halt - with seven other trials of similarly designed would-be vaccines either suspended or called off indefinitely.

The US government alone pumps £250million a year into research to try to find a "Holy Grail" vaccine which would put an end to Aids.

Now scientists fear the disastrous outcome of the two most promising trials leaves them back at square one.

Hailed as major breakthroughs when the tests began, the US-funded STEP and Phambili studies were shut down when it became clear the vaccines could leave patients more susceptible to the virus, which attacks the immune system and which killed more than two million victims last year - 320,000 of them children.

More than 25million people have died from Aids since 1981 and an estimated 33million are living with the disease, most in Africa.

In the UK, there have been at least 17,600 Aids-linked deaths and more than 88,000 people have contracted the HIV virus which leads to Aids.