Relation of the Incubation Period and the Secondary Immune Response to Lasting Immunity to Infectious Diseases

[摘要] Lasting immunity has in general been considered to be characteristic especially of certain viral diseases. To explain the persistence of immunity, which is in reality a very common phenomenon, commoner indeed than immunity which is merely temporary, it has been suggested that in some diseases the virus persists in the body and acts as a permanent antigenic stimulus, whereas in other diseases, immunity is maintained throughout life by repeated subclinical attacks of the disease.Persistence of viruses in the recovered animal and in man is recognized in a number of diseases such as salivary gland disease of guinea pigs, psittacosis in birds, lymphocytic choriomeningitis in mice, infectious anemia of horses and herpes simplex in man. In diseases where antibodies persist long after recovery and where there is no possibility of renewed contact with the agent, it has been suggested that the virus persists in the body even though it cannot be recognized.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）