On 5 Apr 1995, Robert C. Colgrove wrote:
> PS: so as not to be a total drudge, maybe we can start a thread on the general
> topic of chronic infection. It strikes me that there are really NOT that many
> clinically important chronic viral illnesses. HIV, HTLV, EBV, CMV, HSV, VZV,
> HBV, HCV, just off the top of my head. Out of the thousands of viruses that
> is a pretty short list. Oh ,and I guess papilloma, JC virus, kuru maybe.
> Others? Note HCV is the oddball here with no DNA form.
>
HCV? Is that hepatitis C or what? As for kuru (?!?!), do you consider
that really anything but _incredibly_ rare? I would call kuru the odd man
in the bunch since it is a prion - no nucleic acid at all, whether RNA or
DNA. Just a self-replicating isoform of an otherwise normal cellular
protein...unless there has been VERY recent info identifying it as
non-prionic?
Patrick
