The genital herpes vaccine is used to prevent herpes virus infection of the genitals. The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals have jointly announced the failure of a large clinical trial regarding a genital herpes vaccine. The eight-year, $27.6 million study, which involved more than 8,000 U.S. and Canadian women, showed that the new vaccine could not deal with the disease caused by sexual contact with the herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), according to the new issue of the journal Science, dealing a heavy blow to the academic and industry groups involved in the vaccine study. A vaccine against HSV-2 has important public health implications. HSV-2 is easily transmitted through sexual contact, and according to 2003 estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 300 million women and 200 million men worldwide are infected with the virus. Typically, HSV-2 infection lasts a lifetime and occasionally causes symptoms, including blisters that can form ulcers; pregnant women can transmit the virus to their newborns, which can even lead to infant death; and people infected with HSV-2 are more likely to be infected with HIV. With this in mind, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases invested $27.6 million in a large-scale follow-up study of women who were negative for both types of HSV. The researchers realized that if the vaccine worked, it would have a narrow market: it was designed to target only women, and HSV-1 is so widely spread in developing countries that the vaccine would be ineffective in most parts of the world. Even so, they still hoped to set an example of success, but now that hope is bursting like a soap bubble.