The World : AIDS Cases Rise by 50%

The World Health Organization raised its estimate of worldwide AIDS cases by 50%, putting the number of people who may have contracted the disease at 150,000. In March, the U.N.-related agency had estimated the figure was 100,000. At the start of a two-day conference on acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the Geneva-based organization’s director general, Halfdan Mahler, added: “My scientific sources tell me that a vaccine may be even further away than we thought a year ago, and development of therapeutic agents has been frustratingly . . . slow.” The organization also estimated that five to 10 million people worldwide are silent carriers of the virus believed to cause the disease.