Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has
left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with
AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV.
The patients' immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable
to fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn't
known, but the disease does not seem to be contagious. This is
another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited
and occurs in adults, but doesn't spread the way AIDS does
through a virus, said Dr. Sarah Browne, a scientist at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She
helped lead the study with researchers in Thailand and Taiwan
where most of the cases have been found since 2004. Their report
is in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. The disease
develops around age 50 on average but does not run in families,
which makes it unlikely that a single gene is responsible,
Browne said. Some patients have died of overwhelming infections,
including some Asians