Persistent infection

Many families of viruses can develop persistent infections in human hosts. These infections have been linked to a wide range of medical conditions including autoimmune diseases such as Lupus, X and X.

Detection
Many persistent infections cannot be detected by standard blood tests.

Herpesviruses
Herpesviruses are very common viruses that all establish latent infection in human hosts. Many have been implicated in chronic and neurogenerative diseases, both with and without replication.

Epstein-Barr virus has been associated with a wide number of immune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Chronic fatigue syndrome, and myasthenia gravis. EBV was recently discovered to turn on "risk genes" for autoimmune disease in the cells it infects. EBNA2, a protein produced by EBV-infected cells, and its related transcription factors activate half the human genes known to be associated with the risk for lupus as well as genes associated with several other autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and celiac disease. EBV activation can thus increase the risk of developing these diseases.