Hopes rising for AIDS to become a manageable disease.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

The word ``cure'' isn't even on the radar screen. But a recent cascade of promising developments in AIDS research has buoyed the hopes of scientists, doctors and AIDS patients themselves.

The developments, which have tumbled out of medical journals for the last year, include:

_New understanding about how HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, reproduces and overwhelms the body's immune system.

_The advent of a new class of drugs, known as protease inhibitors, which are much more potent than AZT in keeping the AIDS virus in check.

_The availability of sophisticated new tests that can measure the amount of HIV in a person's blood, allowing doctors to follow patients more closely and probably design better treatment regimens.

These developments and others have given new impetus to the long-held hope that AIDS can become like cancer or diabetes _ a chronic illness that, if properly treated, can be controlled for many years.

``Nine years ago, when I tested positive for HIV, I fully expected to be dead in a couple of years,'' said Ted Kirk, 28, a Philadelphia psychologist whose illness has forced him to give up his practice. ``Now, my short-term goal is to live to my 30th birthday. My long-term goal is the year 2000. That would be a fabulous New Year's party!''

Kirk, who has been holding his HIV at bay with a drug approved just last year, soon hopes to augment his treatment with an even…