Science / Medicine : Young Fend Off AIDS Better

Children and teen-agers infected with the AIDS virus can apparently fend off the disease much longer than adults, suggesting that the immune systems of the young may somehow protect them better, researchers said last week.

A new study of 319 hemophiliacs infected with the AIDS virus found that the rate at which they developed AIDS was strongly related to their age. Children and young adults were about five times less likely than adults to get sick over an eight-year period.

“The risk was much lower in those infected as children or adolescents and much higher in those infected over age 35,” said Dr. James Goedert of the National Cancer Institute, who led the study.

“Our best guess (to an explanation) is there are factors associated with getting older,” said Goedert, who published his findings in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Adults may tend to develop the disease sooner because their reserve of immune system cells has been depleted, Goedert said. Adults may also have been exposed to more infections that can flare up when their immune systems are run down by the virus, he said.