Science & technology | PINS and needles

Long covid is not the only chronic condition triggered by infection

Finding similarities between post-infectious illnesses could lead to better treatments

An illustration showing a brain within a head surrounded by a colourful bar chart that waves up and down and other shapes floating around.
Illustration: Cristina Spanò

SOME INFECTIONS—HIV/AIDS, for example—are chronic. If you catch one you are stuck with it indefinitely, unless a treatment exists to clear away the guilty pathogen. Many, though, are acute. Unless they kill you, your immune system will do the clearing and you can carry on as before.

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This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Peering through the fog”

From the February 24th 2024 edition

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