Zeitschrift für Immunbiologie

Is Cytomegalovirus a Neglected Pathogen in the Field of Immunobiology?

Abstract

Rodney P Jones

Around the world deaths are behaving in a unique way which was previously thought to be impossible, namely, they are showing on/off switching. In switch-on they suddenly jump to a new higher level, stay high for around 12- months, and then switch-off back to the baseline trajectory. This behaviour originates at small (neighbourhood) area level and aggregates to give regional and national events whose magnitude depends on the degree of small-area synchrony. This mini-review explores the possibility that the common immune-modifying virus cytomegalovirus may be involved in these events