Prions can incubate for very long periods of time before they result in full-blown disease, with each animal or person experiencing the effects differently.

Only 8 to 10 percent of those infected develop the full-blown disease.

Dr. Takaro said 84 more have been "sensitized," to beryllium, which means they are at high risk of contracting the full-blown disease.

Not all family members who have the mutation develop the full-blown disease, he said.

Experts estimate that three to five times as many babies suffer from AIDS-related illnesses, which tend to precede the full-blown disease.

Are our social institutions capable of dealing with the ambiguities of genetic flaws, of the uncertainty of a gene's likelihood to express itself as full-blown disease?

A blood test can pick up about a third of mothers-to-be who have no symptoms but will go on to develop full-blown disease after giving birth, they say.

The healthy individual usually develops a relatively mild case of smallpox and then has permanent immunity, but some people developed the full-blown disease and some died.

People carrying polymorphisms associated with weak disease susceptibility may constitute a target group for whom avoidance of carcinogen exposure may be highly useful in preventing full-blown disease from occurring.

If you have prediabetes, studies show that losing weight and getting more exercise can prevent or delay the full-blown disease.