Severe viral infection

What it means

An unusually severe viral infection.

The majority of viral infections acquired by nonimmunosuppressed individuals are asymptomatic or result in mild clinical manifestations. These individuals are able to mount effective immune responses that either clear the virus from the body or, for viruses that establish latency, maintain the virus in a dormant state. For individuals who are immunocompromised, because of a genetic immunodeficiency or immunosuppressive drug therapy, viral infections may result in life-threatening disease. Such patients present with infections that are severe, persistent, recurrent, or refractory to therapy and are usually caused by viruses of low virulence prevalent in the community.

Rare diseases that can present with this13

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions, and Orphanet separately records 1 disease where this sign is specifically absent. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category