
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 13, 1990                   TAG: 9006130066
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AGENCY'S PROJECTION OF AIDS CASES RAISED

Rapid spread of the AIDS virus in developing countries means the disease will be more widespread in the next century than previously thought, the World Health Organization said Tuesday in Washington.

The current projection that up to 20 million people will have been infected by 2000 also is expected to be pushed up by a rise in heterosexual transmission of the disease in industrialized countries, said Michael Merson, director of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS.

"It is very unlikely that the global prevalence of HIV infection will stabilize or level off for at least several decades," he said.

WHO estimates that 6 million to 8 million people worldwide have been infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

WHO considers its forecast that 15 million to 20 million people will be infected by the turn of the century to be a minimum estimate, Merson said.

- Associated Press

by CNB