Researchers have found that having chronic viral infections like EBV (illustrated above) can influence how likely someone is to develop long-term COVID and what symptoms they might have.
Researchers have found that having chronic viral infections like EBV (illustrated above) can influence how likely someone is to develop long-term COVID and what symptoms they might have.
what you need to know
In a small study supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), researchers found that chronic viral infections can influence the likelihood that someone will develop Long COVID. They also found that different chronic infections were associated with the development of different long-term COVID symptoms.
What did the researchers do?
Some viruses cause underlying chronic infections. These viruses lie dormant in our bodies without making us sick and can later reactivate if the body is dealing with another infection or is under stress. The reactivated virus can cause symptoms, especially in people with weakened immune systems. Viruses that can cause chronic infections include HIV, herpesviruses such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
The researchers wanted to see if people with these underlying chronic infections were more likely to develop long-term COVID-19, especially if these viruses had reactivated or infected someone around the same time they developed COVID-19. They interviewed 280 people who had long-term COVID and took blood samples to determine whether they had a chronic infection and whether that infection would have been active at the same time they were infected with SARS-CoV-2.
The researchers found that the likelihood that someone would develop Long COVID was influenced by the underlying chronic infection they had. For example, people with reactivated EBV infection were more likely to develop long-term COVID, while people with reactivated CMV infection were less likely to develop severe long-term COVID (defined as having five or more symptoms associated with prolonged COVID).
The researchers also found that different Long COVID symptoms appeared to be related to different underlying infections. For example, people with HIV were more likely to develop memory and concentration problems, while people who had reactivated one of the herpesviruses were more likely to show fatigue. People with CMV were also less likely to have memory and concentration symptoms.
Why is this research important?
The results of this study are preliminary, but the research may show that there are different types of long-term COVID and that a person’s biological makeup could influence whether and what kind of symptoms they have long-term after SARS infection. CoV-2. . Future studies of Long COVID and chronic viral immune responses will be needed to fully understand how these conditions influence each other.
Where can I go to learn more?
Study looks for prolonged risk factors for COVID
Prolonged COVID or post-COVID conditions
prolonged COVID as a disability
Sources
Peluso, MJ, Deveau, T., Munter, SE, Ryder, D., Buck, A., Beck-Engeser, G., Chan, F., Lu, S., Goldberg, SA, Hoh, R., Tai , V., Torres, L., Iyer, NS, Deswal, M., Ngo, LH, Buitrago, M., Rodriguez, A., Chen, JY, Yee, BC, … & Henrich, TJ Impact of pre-existing viral infection chronic and reactivation in the development of long COVID. Prepress. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.21.22276660
Source: news.google.com