US aid cuts halt HIV vaccine research

JOHANNESBURG — Just a week remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward restricting one of history's deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived.

Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Donald Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding.

The news devastated the researchers who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. Their research project, called Brilliant, was meant to be the latest to draw on the region's genetic diversity and deep expertise in the hope of benefiting people everywhere.