Clinical latency
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Clinical latency is the state, or time period, in which an infectious agent such as a virus or bacterium replicates in its host without causing medical signs in the host. Each infectious agent has a characteristic duration of clinical latency, lasting from hours to years. The study of clinical latency is central to the epidemiology and treatment of many infectious diseases.
With respect to viral infections, in clinical latency the virus is actively replicating.[1] This is in contrast to viral latency, a form of dormancy in which the virus does not replicate.
Clinical latency occurs in:
- AIDS: persons infected with HIV may at first have no symptoms and show no signs of AIDS, despite HIV replicating in the lymphatic system and rapidly accumulating a large viral load. These persons may be infectious.
- syphilis
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis
During clinical latency, an infection is subclinical.
[edit] References
- ^ Sharara AI (1997). "Chronic hepatitis C". South. Med. J. 90 (9): 872–7. PMID 9305294.
