Latent Viral Infection

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

Some individuals who had tested negative twice for the coronavirus, had, after a few weeks or months, has been tested positive, the second time around albeit with milder symptoms.

Concept:

• A latent infection is when the virus in the body is dormant and does not replicate within the host.
• It however possesses the capacity to be reactivated at some point, causing a flare-up of the disease much later.
• As opposed to active infections, where a virus is actively replicating and potentially causing symptoms, latent infections are essentially static which last the life of the host and occur when the primary infection is not cleared by the adaptive immune response.
• Herpes simplex viruses type 1 and 2, varicella-zoster virus, HIV, Epstein-Barr virus (human herpesvirus 4), and cytomegalovirus are known to cause typical latent infections in humans.