Does everyone who contracts HIV develop clinical AIDS?
No. Some will die of other unrelated causes (e.g. a car accident) or natural causes before HIV progresses to clinical AIDS. Some have natural resistance to HIV that may greatly slow or totally prevent the progression from HIV to clinical AIDS. Some go on antiretroviral medication before their HIV disease meets the criteria for clinical AIDS and as a result never get the opportunistic infection or CD4 cell count that would lead to a diagnosis of clinical AIDS. However, all but a few HIV positive individuals progress to AIDS within 20 years.
