Hidding SARS-CoV-2 in the Body

After studying the herpes virus, I learned that some viruses can hide in a person's lymphocytes or central nervous system and later become expressed as illness in a phenomenon called “latent infection”. This got me wondering if SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, also had this quality. I found an article explaining how it can “hide out” in the body, but not in the same way that a herpes virus does. What the SARS-CoV-2 virus does is it “hides” in the body after initial infection, continuing to cause illness while the immune system cannot find the virus. There is a theory that this could be the cause of long-COVID. With the virus hiding in the body, it makes it difficult to get rid of the virus, and therefore more likely that the person will spread COVID to other people. 

Another thing that this article explores is the spike proteins on the outside of every variant of SARS-CoV-2. There is a common spike protein that has been found on every variant of this virus that has most likely given it an advantage inside the body, allowing it to replicate very fast. It is this spike protein that changes shape after coming in contact with the fatty acids in the host’s cell, making the virus nearly undetectable to the immune system. This ability to hide in the body for a long time might make eradication of this virus very difficult.

-Lauren Burch

Variants of COVID Virus May 'Hide Out' in Body: Study - Consumer Health News | HealthDay