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Estimating the incubation period for AIDS (the time from contact with the virus to development of the disease) has been problematic for all groups except those contracting the virus through blood transfusions. In this group, the mean incubation period is 8.2 years. In this study, a similar incubation period is estimated for homosexual men.
Eighty-four homosexual and bisexual men were followed after converting from a negative to a positive HIV-1 antibody test within a one-year period. Since the vast majority of people exposed to HIV-1 become serologically positive within months of exposure, it was assumed that the infection had been contracted during the year of the serologic conversion. Based on these data, the mean incubation period for the…