Hi, Overstressed.
Please note that there are other viruses that remain in our bodies, also, which commonly stay in a latent state and don't cause constant problems. The herpes family of viruses is a good example. They are not retroviruses, like XMRV, but are DNA viruses.
The herpes family includes herpes simplex I (the cold sores virus), herpes simplex II (genital herpes), herpes zoster, aka varicella zoster (chicken pox and shingles virus), Epstein-Barr Virus (mononucleosis, aka glandular fever), cytomegalovirus, HHV-6 a (the one found in many people with CFS), HHV-6b (causes roseola in babies), HHV-7, and HHV-8 (causes Kaposi's sarcoma in people with AIDS).
People who have been exposed and developed an infection with herpes family viruses are usually able to put them into latency, and they stay that way unless certain conditions develop in the cells in which they reside that enable them to reactivate. This process is not completely understood, but activation of at least some of the herpes family viruses are favored if the ratio of arginine to lysine gets too high. Depletion of glutathione favors formation of glycoprotein B, which is a necessary part of the coat of all the herpes family viruses. A variety of stressors can deplete glutathione. A common one for the cold sores virus is exposure to ultraviolet light from sunshine.
Leela is right on. We can't expect to kill all these guys. We have to get our "terrain" into a status that tends to keep them in latency. That's the best we can do, at this stage of our abilities.
Best regards,
Rich