No cure in sight.

Research regarding long-term AIDS survivors does not mean that scientists are closer to a cure, maintains Ronald C. Kennedy, professor of microbiology and immunology. University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He says that the reports merely state what most researchers already know--there are many varieties of AIDS, and no two people respond to these viruses in exactly the same way.

"Put simply, they're studying a limited number of people who have HIV, but not full-blown AIDS, and asking: `Why do they remain healthy for long periods of time with no symptoms of AIDS?' The majority of individuals who were exposed to the virus during the same period of time have long since died from AIDS-related complications.

"Researchers believe that most people infected with the virus develop AIDs within 12 years. However, a small percentage of HIV-infected people remain healthy even after 12 years of being infected. [The] studies are saying that it's probably because these people appear to have exceptionally strong immune systems or that the virus has mutated into a weaker form."

One, conducted at the New York University School of Medicine, found that the concentration of the virus in an infected person's standard unit of blood was much lower in long-term survivors, defined as those who had lived with the virus for 12 to 15 years. Another examined 15 subjects with long-term non-progressive HIV infection and 18 with progressive infection. In lymph nodes from the non-progressive subjects, the virus appeared to be weaker and not as evident. Lymph node structures, a key element of the body's...