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Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

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Re: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

#3

Interesting to me personally because I'd never heard before that HSV-1 reactivation was stress-linked.

It's well known that stress weakens the immune system[1]. So it's not a surprise that stress might encourage dormant infections (such as HSV-1) to enjoy a resurgence.

[1] https://www.apa.org/research/action/immune

Re: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

#5
Space is cool, but I didn't see any gravity related controls nor any other space specific controls.

Consider that the relationship between stress (HPA axis, etc.) and viral activation is pretty well known. Models of chronic rodent stress include constant loud noise, uncomfortable environmental scale (open spaces versus "comfortable" places with places to hide/nest), weird lighting and temperature, "violent" (freaking them out, not hurting them) handling, etc. These rodent models seem pretty similar to "put humans in a cramped little box, shake them around and mess with their sleep and eating schedules".

There's nothing novel and space specific here except for "going to space is stressful" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Re: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

#6
Reminder that the stigma against herpes is a pharmaceutical marketing creation from the mid 1970s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex#Society_and_cul...

>Pedro Cuatrecasas states, "during the R&D of acyclovir, marketing [department of Burroughs Wellcome] insisted that there were 'no markets' for this compound. Most had hardly heard of genital herpes..." Thus, marketing the medical condition—separating the 'normal cold sore' from the 'stigmatized genital infection' was to become the key to marketing the drug, a process now known as 'disease mongering'.

>Much of the hysteria and stigma surrounding herpes stems from a media campaign beginning in the late 1970s and peaking in the early 1980s. Multiple articles were worded in fear-mongering and anxiety-provoking terminology, such as the now-ubiquitous "attacks", "outbreaks", "victims", and "sufferers". At one point, the term "herpetic" even entered the popular lexicon. The articles were published by Reader's Digest, U.S. News, and Time magazine, among others. A made-for-TV movie was named Intimate Agony. The peak was when Time magazine had 'Herpes: The New Scarlet Letter' on the cover in August 1982, forever stigmatizing the word in the public mind.

Re: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

#8

Space is cool, but I didn't see any gravity related controls nor any other space specific controls. Consider that the relationship between stress (HPA axis, etc.) and viral activation is pretty well known. Models of chronic rodent stress include constant loud noise, uncomfortable environmental scale (open spaces versus "comfortable" places with places to hide/nest), weird lighting and temperature, "violent" (freaking…

FTAA - "Larger quantities and increased frequencies for these viruses were found during spaceflight as compared to before or after flight samples and their matched healthy controls." Further details such as graphs, p values, and references are also provided.

Re: Herpes Virus Reactivation in Astronauts During Spaceflight

#10

Reminder that the stigma against herpes is a pharmaceutical marketing creation from the mid 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex#Society_and_cul... >Pedro Cuatrecasas states, "during the R&D of acyclovir, marketing [department of Burroughs Wellcome] insisted that there were 'no markets' for this compound. Most had hardly heard of genital herpes..." Thus, marketing the medical condition—separating the '…

The peak was when Time magazine had 'Herpes: The New Scarlet Letter' on the cover in August 1982

It's was actually "Today's scarlet letter: Herpes."

https://goo.gl/images/hVd6um

Sad when people can't do a simple Google search to verify most easily verifiable claims.

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