Healthy people, too, carry different types of viruses on their body

Washington, September 18 2014:  The new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St.Louis  which is the first comprehensive analysis to describe the diversity of viruses in healthy people, reported that healthy individuals carry about five types of viruses on their bodies.

In 102 healthy young adults aged 18 to 40, the researchers sampled up to five body habitats, nose, skin, mouth, stool and vagina and detected at least one type of virus in 92 percent of participants and found that some individuals harbored about 10 to 15 virus.  Many of these microbes, as they are known, work to keep us healthy.

Lead author Kristine M. Wylie said that they were impressed by the number of viruses they found on sampling up to five body sites in each person and would expect to see many more viruses if they had sampled the entire body.

Although it is not yet known whether this normal viral flora has a positive or negative impact on overall health, it is speculated that, in some cases, the viruses may help in maintaining the immune system primed to respond to dangerous pathogens while in others, lingering viruses increase the risk of disease.

Not surprisingly, the vagina was dominated by papillomaviruses, with 38 percent of female subjects carrying such strains and some of the women harbored certain high-risk strains that increase the risk of cervical cancer.

These strains were more common in women with communities of vaginal bacteria that had lower levels of Lactobacillus and an increase in bacteria such as Gardnerella, which is associated with bacterial vaginosis.

Co-author Gregory Storch added that it is very important to know what viruses are present in a person without causing a problem and what viruses could be responsible for serious illnesses that need medical attention.

The study is published online in BioMed Central Biology. (ANI)