COVID-19 awakens dormant viruses — and one is linked to long COVID
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- Boston Children's Hospital researchers co-led a Nature study across 15 biomedical research institutions that tracked 1,154 patients at 20 U.S. hospitals, collecting more than 200,000 samples and over 1 billion data points over a year.
- Researchers identified 11 reactivated viruses within 40 days of hospital admission for COVID-19, most frequently Epstein-Barr, herpes simplex 1, cytomegalovirus, and Anelloviridae, using genomic sequencing to detect viral reactivation.
- Anelloviridae reactivation — a poorly understood viral family latent in roughly 90% of the population — showed a prominent association with long COVID and long-term physical disability, the researchers reported.
- Epstein-Barr and cytomegalovirus appeared to reactivate in response to inflammation rather than immunosuppression, challenging the prevailing view that chronic viral reactivation stems primarily from a weakened immune system.
- Ofer Levy of Boston Children's Precision Vaccines Program noted that up to 50,000 Americans died during the 2025–2026 COVID respiratory season and that over 10 million U.S. adults are estimated to suffer from long COVID.
- The team plans next to study how the immune system responds to reactivated viruses during COVID-19 illness, with the goal of identifying treatment targets and optimal timing for interventions.
Why it matters: If Anelloviridae reactivation is confirmed as a driver of long COVID, it could redirect diagnostic and drug-development efforts toward a viral family most physicians currently ignore — potentially opening treatment avenues for an estimated 10 million U.S. adults now left without targeted therapies. The inflammation-not-immunosuppression finding also rewrites the textbook model of viral reactivation.
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