Sammanfattning
Retroviruses can be transmitted in two fundamentally different ways: 1) They can be horizontally transmitted as infectious virus, or 2) they
can integrate in the germ line and be transmitted to offspring and the offsprings’ offspring as DNA. The latter is called endogenous viruses. The
mode of transmission is called vertical. Viral variants of importance for development of disease must be more frequent among diseased persons
than among healthy individuals. Multiple sclerosis, diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis are all associated with sets of endogenouos retroviruses
but not the same sets. If a virus grows and this contributes to disease, one should be able to alleviate disease with antiretroviral drugs. We call
for clinical trials to elucidate this issue.