Patterns of Persistent Viral Infections

Abstract

This article is intended to provide an overview of the patterns of persistent viral infections^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9} so that physicians will be aware of what kinds of information gathered in the routine care of patients may later allow the piecing together of epidemiologic clues that would indicate an association between a virus and a disease.The recognition that viral infections can produce disease long after the initial exposure emerged from the study of diseases resulting from the importation of rams infected with scrapie, visna, and maedi into Iceland in 1933.¹⁰ In the 1950s, Sigurdsson gave the name "slow virus infections" to such . . .