Human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 6B (HHV-6B), collectively termed HHV-6A/B, are neurotropic viruses that permanently infect most humans from an early age. Although most people infected with these viruses appear to suffer no ill effects, the viruses are a well-established cause of encephalitis in immunocompromised patients. In this review, we summarize the evidence that the viruses may also be one trigger for febrile seizures (including febrile status epilepticus) in immunocompetent infants and children, mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), and, possibly, Alzheimer’s disease. We propose criteria for linking ubiquitous infectious agents capable of producing lifelong infection to any neurologic disease, and then we examine to what extent these criteria have been met for these viruses and these diseases.

中文翻译：

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人类疱疹病毒 6A 和 6B 与脑部疾病的关系：关联与因果关系

人类疱疹病毒 6A (HHV-6A) 和人类疱疹病毒 6B (HHV-6B) 统称为 HHV-6A/B，是嗜神经病毒，从幼年起就永久感染大多数人类。尽管大多数感染这些病毒的人似乎没有受到任何不良影响，但这些病毒是免疫功能低下患者脑炎的公认病因。在这篇综述中，我们总结了证据，表明这些病毒也可能是免疫功能正常的婴儿和儿童的热性惊厥（包括热性癫痫持续状态）、颞叶内侧癫痫、多发性硬化症（MS）以及可能的阿尔茨海默病的触发因素之一。我们提出了将能够产生终生感染的普遍存在的传染源与任何神经系统疾病联系起来的标准，然后我们检查这些病毒和这些疾病在多大程度上满足了这些标准。