haviland at KIDS.WUSTL.EDU ("David L. Haviland, Ph.D.") wrote:
>Greetings:
>I'm curious as to why Herpes infections (such as Zoster) are more severe
>in adults than in children. Any thoughts? I'm curious as to what
>differences there may be in adult vs. "pediatric" immune systems. I've
>not found anything of use in the classical med -micro texts (under
>virology).
David,
just a thought, but is it to do with primary versus secondary
infections? We know that many of the herpes viruses are
immuno-regulators, for example, ICP47 found in HSV downregulates MHC-I
via TAP. Consequently, any infection that overcomes these features
must, by its very nature, be more severe.
I'd be interested in other peoples views on this.
Regards
Mike Whelan BSc PhD
