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.