Editing Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS (section)

====HIV is not the cause of AIDS because many individuals with HIV have not developed AIDS====
HIV infections have a prolonged and variable course. The median period of time between infection with HIV and the onset of clinically apparent disease is approximately 10 years in [[industrialized countries]], according to prospective studies of homosexual men in which dates of [[seroconversion]] are known. Similar estimates of asymptomatic periods have been made for HIV-infected blood-transfusion recipients, injection-drug users and adult hemophiliacs.<ref name="Alcabes, 1993">{{cite journal | last1 = Alcabes | first1 = P. | last2 = Munoz | first2 = A. | last3 = Vlahov | first3 = D. | last4 = Friedland | first4 = G.H. | year = 1993 | title = Incubation period of human immunodeficiency virus | journal = Epidemiol. Rev. | volume = 15 | issue = 2| pages = 303–18 | pmid = 8174659 | doi = 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a036122 }}</ref>

As with many diseases, a number of factors can influence the course of HIV disease. Factors such as age or genetic differences between individuals, the level of virulence of the individual strain of virus, as well as exogenous influences such as co-infection with other microbes may determine the rate and severity of HIV disease expression. Similarly, some people infected with [[hepatitis B]], for example, show no symptoms or only [[jaundice]] and clear their infection, while others suffer disease ranging from chronic [[liver]] inflammation to [[cirrhosis]] and hepatocellular carcinoma. Co-factors probably also determine why some smokers develop [[lung cancer]] while others do not.<ref name="Levy, 1993"/><ref name="Evans, 1982">{{cite journal | last1 = Evans | first1 = A.S. | year = 1982 | title = The clinical illness promotion factor: a third ingredient | journal = Yale J. Biol. Med. | volume = 55 | issue = 3–4| pages = 193–99 | pmid = 6295003 | pmc = 2596440 }}</ref><ref name="Fauci, 1996">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1038/384529a0 | last1 = Fauci | first1 = A.S. | year = 1996 | title = Host factors and the pathogenesis of HIV-induced disease | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1233194| journal = Nature | volume = 384 | issue = 6609| pages = 529–34 | pmid = 8955267 |bibcode = 1996Natur.384..529F | s2cid = 4370482 }}</ref>