Most Infected With AIDS Will Develop Disease, Study Says

STOCKHOLM —  Most and perhaps all people who are infected with the AIDS virus will eventually develop the deadly disease, according to research released today.

Evidence presented at the Fourth International Conference on AIDS suggests that infection relentlessly progresses to full-blown AIDS as the years pass.

An estimated 1 million to 1.5 million people in the United States harbor the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus, HIV, in their bodies, but the vast majority are still outwardly healthy.

“The majority will get it (AIDS),” said Dr. Harold Jaffe, an AIDS expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. “Whether that will be 70%, 90% or 100%, we still don’t know.”

“This is an ultimately predictable disease,” said Dr. Robert Redfield of the Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington. “It will have a fatal outcome in a majority--if not all--of the people infected.”