Where do viruses hide in the human body?

Where do known viruses linger in the body?Virus particles often hide in “immunoprivileged sites” around the human body, also sometimes called sanctuary sites, that our immune systems don’t monitor or protect as closely as the rest of our bodies.1 These include the brain, spinal cord, pregnant uterus, testes, and eyes, for which damage by immune cells would be highly problematic. The testes can harbour Zika2 and Ebola3 viruses, for example.Viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 primarily infect the respiratory tract but can move elsewhere. Influenza viruses can persist after infection in people’s intestinal tract and stool,4 through swallowed secretions from the nose and throat or viruses in the blood. HIV is a latent virus that inserts its genome into the DNA of a person’s immune cells, specifically their T cells and macrophages. Latent hepatitis C virus resides in the liver.Over the past 20-30 years laboratory measurements have become sensitive enough…
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