That's according to a study of more than 1,000 people hospitalized with the disease that is published today in Nature1. The analysis finds that this reactivation of pathogens is linked to especially intense bouts of COVID-19 and to the development of long COVID. If further research reveals that reactivated viruses can cause people to become seriously ill, it could open the door to new treatments for COVID-19 and even long COVID, says Esther Melamed, a physician-scientist who studies neuroimmunology at the University of Texas at Austin and who is a co-author of the analysis. Although the study didn't dive into how COVID-19 prompts viruses to reawaken, Melamed says that the disease 'probably induces the stress that triggers the reactivations, and then these reactivations further amplify the inflammation' caused by COVID-19. In these cases, she adds, 'COVID is not really acting on its own.' Nearly everyone is infected by a variety of viruses throughout their childhood and adolescence....
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