Question

You are graduating from nursing school in three months and have already lined up a new job. However, your employer informs you that before you start your job, it is mandatory for you to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, a double-stranded DNA virus that can cause the disease hepatitis. Your friend wonders why you need to get the vaccine. You aced your microbiology class and you know a lot about both viruses and vaccines, so you give your friend a mini lesson. You friend wonders whether the same type of virus can cause both an acute and a persistent infection?
a. No—a virus causes either an acute infection or a persistent infection, butnever both.
b. Yes—the initial infection might be acute but the virus can later become latent by becoming integrated into the host cell genome.
c. Yes—acute and persistent infections are really the same thing except that people with persistent infections recover more quickly than those with acute infections.
d. Yes—acute and persistent infections are really the same thing except that people with acute infections recover more quickly than those with persistent infections.
e. No—if the initial infection is acute, the virus would have to mutate in the host before being able to cause a persistent infection.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is OPTION B (b. Yes—the initial infection might be acute but the virus can later become latent by becoming integrated into the host cell genome).

Explanation:

The hepatitis B virus has an unusual feature similar to retroviruses. This makes it deadly and difficult to treat when it is at an advanced stage. It basically attacks the liver and can cause both an acute and persistent infection.

In the acute stage, the cells are newly attacked and the body is fighting it off, the symptoms might start showing depending on how long it has invaded the body. These symptoms include dark urine, vomiting, yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), the liver can still fail at this stage causing death.

At the persistent stage, which is already chronic, the invaded cells have been weakened, the symptoms are slow to resolve therefore it is in a prolonged stage which can lead to liver cancer and eventual death.