The measles virus can hide in your brain for a decade
Anatomy
Long after a childhood fever breaks, dormant viral particles can quietly hijack your neurons, slowly dismantling the brain's ability to communicate with the rest of the body.
While most people recover from measles in a few weeks, the virus occasionally stages a decade-long vanishing act. In roughly one out of every 1,000 cases, the virus hitches a ride on immune cells to cross the blood-brain barrier. Once inside the central nervous system, it undergoes a strange mutation that prevents it from fully replicating or exiting the cell. This defect allows it to survive undetected by the immune system for seven to ten years.