Giant Study Reveals Why Some Viruses Hide Inside Your Body For Life

A Harvard-led team analyzed blood and saliva from over 917,000 people to measure viral DNA load across common DNA viruses.

They found 82 human genomic loci, many in the MHC, that associate with differences in viral load, which varied by age and sex.

High EBV viral load was linked to higher risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma, while EBV amount was not directly linked to multiple sclerosis.

Three anelloviruses were present in 80–90% of people, and the study only analyzed DNA viruses, not RNA viruses.