ANN ARBOR — Chances are good you have herpes.

Up to 90% of adults likely have some kind of herpes virus in their system, making this one of our most prevalent viral companions when all eight human herpes viruses are taken into consideration.

But these viruses are more than just health complications. They’re complex biological records of early life environments, the effects of social inequality, and the effects of immune system aging.

In “Let’s Talk About Herpes: What Chronic Viruses Reveal About Our Lives,” the latest presentation of the Institute for Social Research’s Insights Speaker series, Grace Noppert of the Survey Research Center explained the in-depth history of herpes and how these viruses shape the lives of nearly every human being in one way or another. And they do shape our lives for one simple fact: once you’ve got a herpes virus, chances are it’s going to be a lifelong relationship.

“There’s this really interesting lifelong tug of war that happens with herpes viruses, and we’re just now starting to figure it out how we measure this whole process,” Noppert said. “Here’s what we know so far. Sometime early in the life course, say daycare or preschool, you get your first infection with something like Cytomegalovirus (CMV). Then what happens is your immune system puts all of these resources into getting that virus down into latency, which means you stop the virus from replicating.”

Once the virus becomes latent in your system, it essentially goes dormant until it is reactivated, which can happen many times over the course of your life. Your body will fight off the reactivated infection again and again, but each time it does, it does so at a cost, which can lead to immune system issues down the road, frequently in the form of a muted immune system response to future illnesses.

“That chronic activation causes the immune system to be in a state of constant vigilance,” said Noppert. “That pressure is accelerating the process of aging, it reduces our ability to respond to vaccines, and it reduces our overall immune competence.”

Is there anything to be done about these pervasive viruses? In her presentation, Noppert addressed the future of herpes research, including the possibility of vaccines for herpes viruses throughout the world.

View the entire presentation below, and learn more about past and future Insights presentations here.