Whilst COVID has been making all the headlines in recent years, not many people know that around 20 years ago, another nasty virus appeared in China, and spread to the rest of the world.
This so-called Chinese HIV-like virus appeared in the early 2000s, and caused havoc in China, infecting millions.
This HIV-like virus was rarely fatal, but appeared to infect the brain, or at least affect the brain, because sufferers with the virus would develop severe depression, anhedonia and anxiety.
These mental symptoms were so debilitating that infected people would often not be able to continue working, and they were plagued with suicidal thoughts, due to sheer unrelenting severity of the depression, anhedonia and anxiety.
The Chinese HIV-like virus also causes many physical symptoms: a chronic sore throat (the virus remains as persistent infection in the throat), chronic nasal congestion (it remains in the nose too), inflammation of the gums (gingivitis), sometimes chronic severe chest pain, cracking or popping sounds when joints moved (crepitus), change of skin elasticity, chronic diarrhoea, general chronic fatigue and weakness, and many other symptoms.
Blood tests will show a low CD4 cell count in about 40% of patients (like in HIV, which is how this Chinese virus gets its name).
The Chinese HIV-like virus is spread from person to person by normal social contact (it's spread by saliva and nasal secretions). Anyone with this chronic viral infection can pass it to others at any point in time (it is chronically contagious, not just contagious during the acute infection).
If you remain in close proximity to an infected person for some months (eg, people living in the same household), you will most likely catch it from them. If you French kiss an infected person, you will likely catch it straight away.
Even people who were infected with this HIV-like virus years ago are still contagious, just as with HIV, because the virus remains chronically in the body.
Not everyone who catches the Chinese HIV-like virus develops these severe symptoms though. Many just have mild symptoms. But in all cases, mild or severe, the symptoms often last indefinitely. So like HIV, the Chinese HIV-like virus creates a chronic persistent infection in the body, and causes persistent symptoms.
Fortunately, in most severe cases, at around 2 year point, the body naturally starts to recover, and many in China report a big reduction in symptom severity after having the viral infection for two years. They are never fully cured, but they get much better after two years. But those first two years are total hell, because patients have constant suicidal thoughts due to the severe depression, anhedonia and super-tense mental state from the anxiety disorder the virus physically causes in the brain.
The Chinese government to an extent tried to suppress information about this virus. The government closed down blogs, forums and social media groups of patients or doctors who were discussing this HIV-like virus. So it is hard to get information about it.
Much of the research on this HIV-like virus has taken place at the Army Medical University in China (previously called the Third Military Medical University). However, there is no treatment or cure for this Chinese virus, and the virus has not yet been identified.
After appearing around 20 years ago in China, this virus has almost certainly circulated around the world. It may be in part responsible for the current epidemic of anxiety disorders and depression that has emerged in Western countries in the last 10 years or so, since the virus is easily caught.
Edited by Hip, 22 January 2023 - 04:51 PM.
