Question

What is a latent virus? Name two animal viruses that can cause latent viral infections and discuss means of prevention and/or treatment of either.

Answer 1

What is a latent virus? Name two animal viruses that can cause latent viral infections and discuss means of prevention and/or treatment of either.

A latent virus can be defined as a dormant virus. Viral latency is the property of the virus where the pathogen stays dormant in one cycle, which is depicted as the lysogenic cycle. When a person is affected by a latent infection, which would be persistent and this is different from the chronic infections.

Two animal viruses that could be causing latent viral infections are:

- varicella zoster virus: this is an acute infection, which causes varicella. This group of virus is a DNA virus, of the group, referred to as, herpesvirus. After initial infection occurs, the vzv virus would stay inside the patient’s body and resides in the sensory ganglia. Primary infection would cause varicella. Reactivation causes herpes zoster. Prevention can be through vaccination.

- herpes simplex virus: this is the disease, that has a period of active disease and an asymptomatic stage. Initial episodes include swollen lymph nodes, muscle pains, fever. These may be transmitted by direct body contact with lesions or fluids from an infected individual. The genital form is transmitted se-xually. This form could be prevented by avoiding anal se-x or vag-inal se-x. Treatments could be using medications- antiviral like valaciclovir or aciclovir.