The trial, called ‘STEP’, was halted in September 2007 because preliminary results suggested that people who had been given the vaccine were more likely to be infected with HIV than people who had been given a placebo.

The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London, King’s College London and Royal Holloway, University of London, say their findings mean scientists may have to rethink other vaccines they are developing for diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which are delivered in the same way, using the same virus ’shell’.

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Although conventional oral contraceptives appear to eventually reach the effective blood concentrations needed in the body to prevent conception in obese women, it appears to take twice as long, leaving a “window of opportunity” every month where the contraceptive may not be at a high enough level to prevent a pregnancy.

The findings are of particular importance, researchers noted in their study, because about 30 percent of all adults in the U.S. are obese and the birth control pill is one of the most popular forms of contraception in the nation.

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