The conditional latency distribution of AIDS for persons infected by blood transfusion

Abstract

Knowledge of the latency period between infection with HIV and the onset of clinical AIDS is important both to establish prognosis for infected individuals and to model the spread of HIV. This paper presents nonparametric analyses of conditional distribution of latency based on data from 1,206 persons who developed AIDS as a result of contaminated blood transfusions. Among persons who develop AIDS within 8 years of infection, there are no significant differences in the distributions of males and females. The conditional latency distribution of infants is significantly shorter than that of other transfusion cases, yet considerably longer than has previously been reported.