Okay, short Marek's analogy for ya'll. (I recently read an article about how Marek's in chickens is helping unlock some of the issues with chickenpox, so here you go.)
Chickenpox is a herpes virus found in every human population. It is most contagious the day or two before a breakout, and in breakout form; although it can be transferred by any contact with bodily fluids.
Here's the tricky part. Not all people who are exposed will have a significant breakout, (although, thankfully with chickenpox, it has external, visible symptoms, so even a tiny breakout is noticeable) and some will have such a significant breakout that they suffer debilitating results. The ending result in either case is that regardless of the severity of the breakout, almost every human being - at some point in their lives- is a carrier for the virus.
Now, the even trickier part.
Person A never contracted the pox as a child, in fact, they were exposed multiple times throughout young adulthood as well, with no adverse effects. Resistant? Quite possibility. At age 39, however, immunity luck runs out and such a severe case ensues that hospitalization is required.
Person B - same scenario - develops shingles at age 64. Not resistant either.
Person C - same scenario. Dies at the ripe old age of 98, never having the dreaded disease. Resistant? A post mortem genetics test is possible - which may reveal some interesting scientific data. But true resistance can only be determined once the subject dies without having contracted the virus. eta: or without having had a breakout...the virus will probably still be found in their system.
And btw, here's the article to which I referred. The caption under the picture made me do a double-take.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/vaccines-hitch-genomic-ride-ward-deadly-chicken-disease
Interesting... I have had chickenpox, but oddly enough I have never had a cold sore in my life... another symptom of a common herpes virus...
Apparently, neither can old bald guys.
There's a story behind that. Apparently I made the cut, but the competition was steep.![]()
No worries... the flashy ones are always Poison Dart Frogs...
