Research is increasingly suggesting that many cases of Long Covid are driven by ongoing persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in a viral reservoir in the human body.
Many viruses establish chronic infection in the human body: both DNA viruses (e.g. EBV, CMV, HIV, Hep B, human herpes viruses like chickenpox) and RNA viruses (e.g. Hep C, ebola, polio, enteroviruses, etc). So do coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2.
To investigate viral reservoir in Long Covid, researchers must look in the body’s tissues, rather than only in blood. The Long Covid Research Initiative will complete these tissue biopsy studies to investigate the role of viral reservoir.
