Contrary to your statement that "infection precedes overt disease by five years or so," on the average it takes 11 years for AIDS to develop.

However there may be more than one cause for a disease and any single potential cause may not always result in the overt disease seen in a patient.

Since our patients were without overt inflammatory disease, we cannot comment on potential pulmonary function abnormalities in patients with clinical inflammation.

The hope is that such intervention might not only improve endothelial function but also reduce clinical symptoms of overt cardiovascular disease.

Dogs with overt disease may also have episodic weakness and exercise intolerance, but syncope is the predominant manifestation.

Drugs for treatment of the overt disease are starting to become available, but no remedy for the virus exists.

The percentage of asymptomatic carriers that develops overt disease is unknown.

Patients with localized disease have a much better prognosis than those with overt metastatic disease.

In addition, malnutrition and prolonged exposure to infected persons may play a role in development of the overt disease.

Why does the causative agent take so long to bring about overt disease?