Hi @blulady, you’re wondering if it’s possible for another virus to activate a dormant one in the body. Yes, that can happen.

Because of the compromised state of long haulers' bodies, previously dormant viruses can potentially reactivate and become chronic infections, such as Epstein Bar Virus. It can actually occur with any illness which weakens the immune system. Similar to patients who are on immunosuppressants. We run the risk of dormant viruses such as EBV, CMV, etc., re-emerging when our immune system isn’t powerful enough to stop it from resurfacing.
The frequency might be elevated now because of the global prevalence of Covid.

Here are a few articles which may help to explain how this happens. https://www.verywellhealth.com/long-covid-latent-viral-reactivations-5205269
https://fortune.com/well/2022/12/26/is-long-covid-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-myalgic-encephalomyelitis/
Whether or not this contributed to your husband’s cancer, that’s one of those unfortunate mysteries we deal with when we’re diagnosed with the disease. Having gone through a cancer odyssey myself, I can understand the need to find out ‘how and why’. It’s as though we need answers for what went wrong so we can place a blame or take the blame for bad lifestyle, work related illness, etc. As one of my oncologists said when I was wondering how I ended up with AML, he succinctly put it in these terms “Sometimes S*** Happens”. He wasn’t being snarky! Simply put, I would drive myself crazy trying to pinpoint a cause when there was no way to do that in my case. So after a while, it’s just time let the past go and look positively toward a healthy future.

I know you and your husband have been going through the wringer on this journey…it’s hard on both of you. How is your husband doing now? Is he making a good recovery?