In medicine, a virus that lacks the antigens necessary for recognition by the immune system. These virii can incorporate genetic sequences from host cells.

In computer security, a virus that aggressively attempts to hide itself from most user processes - by hiding in the boot sector, staying resident in memory to protect infected files from virus scanning software, encrypting its own code, etc.

STEALTH VIRUSES

A stealth virus is a type of cytopathogenic virus, which a virus that harms or destroys living cells. You can identify a stealth virus in a human culture due to the fact that the cells will be destroyed by the virus. Stealth viruses lack antigens, which are little identifiers that the immune system uses to classify something as foreign or local. Since these viruses do not have antigens, they are indectable by the immune system, and, therefore, have the name stealth.

Stealth viruses can evolve and adapt at an astonishing, if not scary, rate. They can steal away little pieces of DNA/RNA from the cells they infect. This gives them an unstable genome, which mutates easily upon replication. Stealth viruses can also get genes from bacteria, and evolve into viteria, which can be extremely deadly. The fact that they can get DNA/RNA from bacteria means that they probably infect bacteria. This, in itself, is scary, since most viruses that infect advanced cells (eukaryotic) such as ours do not harm primitive cells (prokaryotic), such as those of bacteria.

Stealth viruses have been found in blood, in breast milk, in urine, in the throat, in tumors, in the fluid around your brain, and in the brain itself. Bacteria such as Lyme diesease seem to favor cells that stealth viruses have damaged. This is probably because the damaged cells are more vulnerable. The plasma membrane, which is the outermost "wall" of the cell, is open in some places after the stealth virus has done its thing. This makes it easier for intracellular bacteria to enter the cell. The stealth virus can cause a lot damage without the help of any bacteria, though. Its symptoms may appear to be ADD, depression, autism, lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenrative disease (such as Alzheimer's), schizophrenia, and others. Additionally, almost all tested cancer patients have been found to be carrying stealth viruses.

It is very hard to even diagnose a stealth virus, forget treating it. The virus must be present in a host for approximately 10 years before our current instruments can detect it. The Center for Complex Infectious Diseases (http://ccid.org) will test blood samples for stealth viruses free of charge, but it is unlikely they will find anything. Treatment is even harder because public health authorities do not acknowledge the existence of stealth viruses. However, substances that work against Herpes have been known to work against stealth viruses. These substances include:

  • acyclovir
  • valcyclovir
  • famciclovir
  • ganciclovir
  • forcarnet


The most consistent agent from the list above is ganciclovir. Taking 5 mg of ganciclovir intravenously for every kilogram of your weight, twice a day, or taking 3,000-4,5000 mg a day for 4 to 6 weeks. When this treatment works, it is only partially effective, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. All in all, stealth viruses are very scary things.


Source:
http://www.ccid.org

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.