Out of the Frying Pan …

An article from Science Daily reports that as the immune system is fighting one type of infection, another type of infection can be activated. Studies at Washington University in St. Louis show that mice with a latent infection by a “virus similar to human Karposi’s sarcoma-associated herpes virus” had that infection activated when the immune system was fighting a parasitic infection of Heligmosomoides polygyrus.

It seems that the herpes virus senses when the immune system is fighting it and moves from an active to a dormant state basically hiding from immunity. when the immune system is engaged with the parasite, the virus “senses” that the immune system is occupied and will revert to the active infection.

It is not clearly known how this directly relates to human disease, but it does show evidence of how complicated the relationships between physiological events can be in human health.

Click here to read the article.