With only a few days until the opening of the 2011 meeting of the International AIDS Society, Jared Baeten, MD, PhD, and his colleagues were planning a couple of low-key poster presentations. Then, on July 10th, the data safety monitoring board of the large HIV prevention study Baeten was leading dropped a bombshell, urging that early results be released and the placebo arm of the study be closed. So, on the first full day of the conference, Baeten, of the University of Washington in Seattle, found himself in a press conference here, with his name hastily scrawled -- and misspelled – on a placard in front of him.
