The 1986 Armstrong lecture. AIDS and the world of the 1990s: here to stay.

The 1986 Armstrong Lecture--21st in a series of annual lectures named for the late Col. Harry Armstrong, USAF, MC--was delivered April 24 during the Aerospace Medical Association's Annual Scientific Meeting in Nashville, TN, April 20-24. The history of the onset of the AIDS epidemic was reviewed along with pertinent aspects of the underlying biomedical science which have enabled precise recommendations concerning its control. The prospects of drug treatment or vaccine interventions are remote and, therefore, health education and prevention are the chief weapons available to combat the epidemic for years to come. Numerous impediments to those effective strategies were discussed.