Conclusion Grim At Aids Conference

An international AIDS conference ended Thursday with a dismal forecast: The killer disease is likely to spread virtually unchecked for years to come.

“This disease is here to stay for some time,” Ibrahim Samba, Africa regional director of the World Health Organization, told a news conference.

“The process of looking for a solution to the AIDS problem still continues and this will take years,” Samba said at the close of the ninth International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa.

Samba said at the opening of the conference Monday that 20 million people worldwide have been infected by the HIV virus that causes AIDS and that the figure could rise to 40 million by the end of the century. About 60 percent of the cases are in Africa.