Question:easy
Varicella zoster virus remains latent in:
Varicella zoster virus remains latent in:
Show Hint
VZV is neurotropic and stays dormant in sensory ganglia like the trigeminal ganglion.
Updated On: Jun 24, 2026
- Trigeminal ganglion (dorsal root and cranial sensory ganglia)
- T cells
- B cells
- Macrophages
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
This is a straight recall of where chickenpox virus hides between episodes.
Family habit: VZV belongs to the herpesviruses, a group famous for going latent for life after the first infection. The question is simply where VZV chooses to hide.
Path of the virus: Chickenpox is the first encounter. As it clears, virus particles move backward up the sensory nerves and settle in the neuron cell bodies of the sensory ganglia, the dorsal root ganglia and cranial counterparts like the trigeminal ganglion. The virus is neurotropic.
What reactivation looks like: Years later, with falling cell mediated immunity, the virus wakes up, runs back down a single sensory nerve, and erupts as a painful band of vesicles in one dermatome, that is shingles. Trigeminal involvement gives ophthalmic herpes zoster.
Ruling out lymphoid sites: B cells are the latent home of EBV, while CD4 T cells and macrophages harbor HIV. VZV does not reside in these immune cells, so options B, C and D are wrong.
\[\boxed{\text{Trigeminal (sensory) ganglion}}\]
Family habit: VZV belongs to the herpesviruses, a group famous for going latent for life after the first infection. The question is simply where VZV chooses to hide.
Path of the virus: Chickenpox is the first encounter. As it clears, virus particles move backward up the sensory nerves and settle in the neuron cell bodies of the sensory ganglia, the dorsal root ganglia and cranial counterparts like the trigeminal ganglion. The virus is neurotropic.
What reactivation looks like: Years later, with falling cell mediated immunity, the virus wakes up, runs back down a single sensory nerve, and erupts as a painful band of vesicles in one dermatome, that is shingles. Trigeminal involvement gives ophthalmic herpes zoster.
Ruling out lymphoid sites: B cells are the latent home of EBV, while CD4 T cells and macrophages harbor HIV. VZV does not reside in these immune cells, so options B, C and D are wrong.
\[\boxed{\text{Trigeminal (sensory) ganglion}}\]
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