COVID-19 awakens dormant viruses — and one is linked to long COVID
A large-scale study involving 1,154 patients found that COVID-19 infection can trigger the reactivation of dormant viruses like Epstein-Barr and herpes. These findings provide new insights into the potential viral mechanisms underlying long COVID and other autoimmune conditions.
Why it matters
Understanding how COVID-19 interacts with dormant viruses is critical for developing treatments for long COVID and managing post-viral health complications.
Viruses that remain in the body for years, including Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus (CMV), and herpes virus, are extremely common. In many people, they cause no symptoms and appear to be harmless. But growing evidence suggests that when these dormant viruses become active again, they may play a role in autoimmune diseases and other long-lasting health conditions.
Now, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital and collaborating institutions have found that COVID 19 can reactivate certain dormant viruses in hospitalized patients. The findings come from a new Nature study involving 15 biomedical research institutions across the United States. The results provide new insight into viruses that persist in the body and could eventually help guide strategies for preventing or treating their reactivation.
Physician scientist Ofer Levy, MD, PhD, director of the Precision Vaccines Program (PVP) at Boston Children's, served as a site principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research.
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