Chronic viral infection

A chronic viral infection is mostly determined by the balance between the virulence of the pathogen and the individual immune properties of the host. Some examples of chronic infections are HIV, herpes viruses, Epstein-barr virus and retroviruses. Typical for these viruses is that they are not cleared from the body. This does not necessarily mean that cells keep producing viral proteins but the viral genome is still present. It can be because their are still cells that are producing viruses, but it can also be because of the viral genome that integrated into the host's genome.

The host will this always remain a potential threat to infect other people, although sometimes it is possible that the serum levels are so low that the virus is not longer transmitted. This is also the case for viruses like HIV for example. People who are infected with HIV and follow their treatment as prescribed can lower the viral load in their blood to undetectable levels. This also means that they can no longer transmit the infection to other people, not even during sexual contact.

Because of the fact that there are still cells needed where the viral genome remains, most naked viruses won't result in a chronic infection because they will cause cell lysis and so cell death and very intense inflammatory responses.